The Dream
by Ruinus
Summary: VM Pairing. Hitomi finds someone else, but Van isn't as heartbroken as he thought he would be. His thoughts drift towards a certain catgirl... Not going to be continued.
1. Prologue: The Dream

Prologe: The Dream….

He hugged the girl even closer to him, though he did not think it was at all possible. The sensations going through his body were amazing, he felt warmth, happiness, and above all, he felt Loved. Loved. Something he thought he would never feel again…that beautiful feeling he thought he had forgotten, when the most important person in his life had to leave. But now, She came back into the picture. And now in her loving embrace he could feel that again, and he wouldn't let this feeling, this person who loved him so, ever out of his sight and reach again. He would never ignore her or leave her behind. "Van" the girl hugging him lovingly finally spoke up, "I Love You."

He felt great…he felt only happiness…he felt love. He IS in Love. He responded back with all the love he felt for her, with love he would always feel for her. "I love you too, Merle."


	2. Chapter 1: After I Dream She comes to Me

Chapter 1: After I Dream She comes to Me…

Van suddenly woke up from his dream. _Fantasy?_ He knew that he had began blushing, but why? This was his childhood friend he was Dreaming about here, and he was having a fantasy about her? "No!" Van caught himself when noticed that he thought he was having a fantasy, "she's just my friend and nothing more!" _Why am I shouting? _He thought to himself, waiting for no real answer in particular_. I am in Love with Hitomi_. He thought almost to reassure himself, _I Love _"Hitomi!" He was very unaware that he had shouted out that last part. _If I Love her, then why am I Dreaming this? Maybe its because she's been so kind to me since Hitomi left?_

He suddenly hears a creak at his chamber door.

He instinctively grabbed his Royal Sword, which he always carries around, and unsheathed it. "Who's there!" he shouted, ready for anything._ Better not be any more assassins, _he thought_, I'm tired of waking up in the middle of the night just to kill some random guy._ For some reason beyond him, he had been recently had many attempts on his life by assassins, thought some appeared to be mercenaries, at various times of the day, but most usually at night. _Ever since Hitomi left…_

So he was happy and delighted to see that it was just Merle.

"Van!" she shouted as she ran over to him, almost tackling him to the ground, "Whats wrong? Another assassin?" she asked him, concern visible in her eyes. _Those big beautiful deep blue eyes…_Van thought admiringly, his mind then processed what he just said. "No!" he said to stop that train of thought. "Oh…ok then whats wrong?" she said, obviously hurt but Vans sudden outburst. "Oh sorry Merle…its just" What should I tell her? That I just had a romantic dream about her? "It was just another nightmare. That's all…say why are you up so late?" He asked suddenly realizing it was way past midnight. "Oh!" she responded "I was just sleeping outside to make sure no other thugs got in here." Van remembered how scared she was when the first assassin tried to kill him at night. Ever since then she stayed close to his room at night. "Well I'm okay now Merle." He yawned, he didn't stay up this late. Well that was a lie. He and Merle usually went on the balconies to look at Fanelia and to look up at the stars. But Merle decided that was a bad idea, and after lots of nagging she talked him into sleeping, instead of stargazing. Never knew why though, but didn't ask either.

He suddenly grabbed her by the arms and drew her closer. He looked into her eyes. _How does she have so beauty-no I wasn't admiring her eyes, but there is something different about them._ Van noticed she was blushing. _Why is she blushing?_ He thought, perplexed

_Oh my Gods! Is he going to finally kiss me? Did he finally get over Hitomi? _Merle thought, her tail swaying side to side happily._ What should I do? Well that's stupid! I should just kiss him back!_ She saw him open his mouth. _This is it!_ She told herself._ I don't care how tired I am, if he kisses me I'm gonna kiss him back all night!_ Next thing she felt was….a total let down. Van didn't kiss her, like she wanted. Instead he asked "Merle have you been getting any sleep lately?" _NOOOOO-huh? Damn...he's right I haven't sleep in a while._ Unknown to Van Merle had recently keep watch over him while he slept. The attempts on his life worried her a lot. But she also loved looking at him while he slept, he looked peaceful, no worries, he looked happy. _Probably because he's thinking about HER._ Merle suddenly felt very jealous. Then depressed._ I wish he thought of me in his sleep. I wish he would feel for me what he feels for her._ Van then hugged her. She suddenly felt happy again, happy in his arms. "Merle get some sleep, if you don't I'm gonna get worried over you." Van said. He had no idea she watched him while he slept. Merle felt so happy at that moment. The words "I'm gonna get worried over you." Dancing across her mind. "Ok" she finally stated dreamily "goodnight Lord Van." Feeling in a good mood over those words she turned and blew him a kiss. _WHY DID I DO THAT?_ Merle screamed in her mind. She quickly ran out of the room.

Van started to blush like a madman.

_What the hell? She blows me a kiss and I blush? I shouldn't react like this! _He thought to himself after she hurried out of the room. _I just need sleep…yeah that's it…I'm just tired._ With these words he climbed into his bed. He realized how big it was, made for two people, he suddenly felt alone.

He then started to dream about what just happened.

He suddenly grabbed her by the arms and drew her closer. He looked into her eyes. Van noticed she was blushing. He told her "I Love You." She replied the same, but to Van it seemed like she had wanted to say it for the longest time…They drew into a passionate kiss, and moved over to the same king-sized bed Van sleeps in now. And they began to disrobe themselves, before making love to each other.

This time Van didn't wake up suddenly. In fact this time he smiled in his sleep. He liked it

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Thanks to Macky for reviewing, I think that was his name…. sorry if its not, but you know who you are.

Yeah this chapter is gonna be longer as I wrote the last one when I was supposed to be doing homework, but its Friday now so I got more time.


	3. Chapter 2: A lot has Changed

Well here comes chapter 2…oh by the way this chapter is 9 years after chapter 1.

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Chapter 2: A lot has Changed…

"A lot has Changed hasn't it Van?" Merle asked while hugging him one day after his sword practice.

The two were laying on the ground, Van exhausted after training with 10 swordsmen, and Merle just laying on top of him, hugging him very tightly. Van had changed in 9 years, he was now taller around 6'1, more muscle tone on his body, and was now considered a very handsome man by many of the women in Gaea. And he was also now of the Master Swordsmen of Gaea. Merle had changed too. She was now a beautiful woman herself, her hair had grown longer, just slightly past her shoulders. She had a more womanly form, with slender legs and nice perky round breasts. Even though they found each other very attractive they never said anything to each other, they just keep their thoughts and admirations to themselves. But they were still the same in a way, Van still a kind person, and Merle was still…well…Merle. (you all know what I mean.)

Van thought about all the things that have happened in the past 9 years. "Millerna and Dryden marrying and ruling over Austuria as a happy couple with 3 children, Allen leaving to travel other parts of Gaea, the creation of the Allied Nations League, Chid (was that his name?) becoming a strong ruler for his people, and Fanelia being restored to its former glory, and then to boot it also became one of the strongest nations on Gaea. You're right Merle a lot HAS changed." He then answers. Merle sighed and then added "that's not what I was talking about." _Damn._ Van thought. A lot had changed, but mainly between Merle and him. Over the past 9 years his love for Hitomi had begun to die down a little. Not in the way that he became indifferent to her, but it just didn't feel the same as it used to. He still had those Dreams about Hitomi, and he still Loved her, but he had more frequent Dreams and thoughts about Merle. Except that now he began to think of her as "more than my friend", he was not sure if he Loved her, but knew that he felt differently about her. Though he would never dare tell her of this, for fear of losing their friendship. But they had inevitable began to get more friendlier around each other, he took more care over her, and in turn she gave him more of her secret love.

Well her love was secret until one of the palace maids found out. The maid was assigned to be around Van as a personal servant, and when Merle found out about this she quickly told her to stay away from him. "But it is my duty to give Lord Fanel company." The maid, Lilia responded. "I can give Lord Van better company than you ever could!" Merle responded rather angrily. Lilia was about to reply back when her mind put 2 and 2 together. "Oh my Gods!" she exclaimed. "that's why you two are always around each other!" Merle started to blush slightly at hearing about a hinted relationship between her and Van. "No its not like that….we're just friends…" she trailed off. Lilia knew what she meant, after all she was a girl too and also had a crush on Van, a lot of girls did, but she realized that this catgirl had something deeper than a crush on Van. "Don't worry" Lilia said in the sweetest voice possible, "sometimes Friendship blossoms into something more." Merle realized Lilia was trying to cheer her up, and thanked her for those words, they soon became friends after that.

_What does she mean to me? I still Love Hitomi, I still wish she came back, but there is something that I fell for Merle too…_he then turned his gaze to the catgirl, who was hugging him, rather tightly too. _MMMH he smells soooo nice! This is my favorite place in the world right here, in his arms…_she pressed herself against him, just wanting more of his warmth and to be closer to him. _Plus he has a nice body_ she thought slyly to herself.Something just suddenly compelled Van to put his arms around her. He hugged her back placing both arms around her waist. As he did this Van's mind started to wander into the a-little-too-friendly zone. _Wow she's got a small waist! It's really nice and slender…_

Something started happening near his private area that he wasn't sure he was expecting. (We all know what it is)

_Crap…_he thought a little embarrassed. His waist was touching hers, he was positive she would notice it. _He's hugging me back? I can't believe it he rarely hugs back! Wait a sec…what's that?_ Merle pondered over this for about a second, _Oh…its just-OH!_ She knew exactly what it was know. She looked up at Van, who was by the looks of things, very embarrassed. Fighting a smile with all her might she asked innocently "Lord Van, what's that?" just to play around with him she pressed her waist onto his. And thanked the Gods that she never wore any underwear.

Again, Van blushed like a madman.

"Merle-" Vans said, noticing she was blushing too. They each noticed that they were suddenly getting warm, and moist in the case of Merle, in their private areas. Thoughts swarmed into their heads.

_Is he going to…_

_Take her into my arms and…_

_Make Love to…_

_Her…_

_Me?_

Someone's' knocking at the training room's door cut off their trail of thought. They both quickly got up and stood apart. Then realized that them standing apart would look suspicious, got close together again, Merle hugging his arm. "Enter." Van replied to the knocking at the door. A messenger in his late 30's came into the room. "Lord Fanel." The messenger said kneeling on one knee. _I'll never get used to that Lord Fanel thing…_thought Van. "You don't have to kneel you know," he told the messenger, when the messenger did not respond he then added "Fine. You may stand." "Lord Fanel, the Chief Advisors have requested an audience with you, at the soonest possible time." "Thank you for the message." And with that the messenger took his leave. On his way out he shot a glance at the King and the catgirl, they were standing very close to each other (as usual) but looked very uptight now. _HAHAHA those two…_

An awkward silence fell upon Van and Merle.

So Van, not thinking straight and trying to lighten up to mood, jokingly said "If you still want to I can show you what 'that' was." Merle suddenly felt like melting, she answered as coolly and innocently as possible, "could you? I want to know what it was." Again a silence fell upon them, but this was a comfortable silence. Not because they had just unknowingly promised to sleep with each other, but because they had just turned an awkward situation into a comfortable one, as all true friends do.

"Well I'll see you later Lord Van!" said Merle in a cheerful mood, she hugged Van once more before leaving the room and running on all fours out of sight. Van headed to the council room, wondering what the Chief Advisors wanted to talk to him about……….

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ElVerdaderoOdio: well that was the third chapter, soon they be some action (of both kinds) and don't worry Hitomi WILL come back again. 


	4. Chapter 3: Council with Bad News

Thanks for Inda for reviewing. Oh just to reply to her on her review, just because some people think someone is meant for each other doesn't mean that they are. Trust me I learned this from a heartbreaking experience, mmmh maybe that's why I'm writing this? Oh well…

Oh by the way I named Fanelia's army the Grand Army mainly to symbolize how Fanelia grew stronger after being rebuilt.

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Chapter 3: Council with Bad News…

Van walked into the Council room. He had rebuilt it differently that what it used to be. He had it rebuilt so that all the Chief Advisors could see each other, and all the while, they could also see the King. (I can't describe it here; it looks like the UN room though) He saw the Chief Advisor of Defense talking to some of the Guard Officers and some other men Van overheard the words 'how many have died?' and 'cant hold out much longer' _Damn that doesn't sound promising._ He sat in his assigned chair, at the center of the half circle shaped room. The only Chief Advisors present were the Chief Advisor of Defense and the Chief Advisor of Foreign Relations. He also saw some other people there, mainly officers in the Guard, and some people who looked like tribal members. _Well at least the Chief Advisor of War isn't here_.

Van thought over the Chief Advisors and how they came to be. When he was rebuilding Fanelia, some of the survivors came back to help with the rebuilding. When some of the survivors remembered their King, they pledged helping him in any way. He remembered when he asked, "Is anyone willing to fill the roles of the Chief Advisors?" and the joy and pride in his people when all of the survivors raised their hands, all of them willing to help bring Fanelia to its former glory. When he was to pick the Chief Advisor of War he thought long and hard over who to appoint the role to. _After all I didn't want some crazed madman wanting only to start wars left and right!_ After a long time, nearly 4 months, of deciding whom to pick he chose a man named Jarred. (Anyone know who this guy is form?) He chose Jarred because they shared the same ideal about War, that it should be avoided at all costs, and only be entered if all attempts to avoid War had failed. _Seeing him here would only mean that War is inevitable. _Van though solemnly.

Upon Van sitting down, a Palace Guard next to him proclaimed in a high voice "Lord Fanel has taken the Main Chair! All will be silent until the King has allowed us to talk!" _God I Hate that! _Van thought nastily in his mind_, they can't talk until I ALLOW them! I'm going to have a talk with Arias_ (Chief Advisor of Orderly Conduct) _sooner or later._

He let out a small sigh, _Oh well…_ "What is the matter?" he asked. "Lord, we have received a message asking for help from a small tribe near the borders of Fanelia. They seem to be under a continuous raids by a band of mercenaries with guymelefs." Stated the Chief Advisor of Defense. Van looked at the Chief Advisor of Defense. A small, respectable looking catwoman. _Jasmine, is her name right? I like her; she cares a lot for the well being of Fanelia. One of the reasons why I chose her as the Chief Advisor of Defense._ "So? Why haven't we responded with aid?" Van asked, very confused. Chief Advisor of Foreign Relations spoke up. "Well your Majesty, it seems that the mercenaries were hired by Asturia."

"What?" Vans' sudden outburst did not really surprise anyone, they all thought the same thing when they found out too. "There must be some mistake! Austuria would never…there's no way..Austuria?…hire mercenaries to attack a defenseless tribe? But why?" Van asked, no real answers coming to his confused mind. Chief Advisor of Foreign Relations finally answered his question. "Well some officials of Asturia believe that one of the tribe members is a criminal, wanted for the assassination of Asturia's King some time ago." "What? I have never even HEARD of a King from Austuria being assassinated.!"

Van replied, he was about to say something when Chief Advisor of Defense cut him off "Your Majesty! Whatever the reason may be," she hesitated as sadness seeped into her body, "whatever the reason may be, the Asturian government has given the mercenaries full permission to persecute all suspected members of this crime. We have tried sending messages to Asturia to desist in this course of action, but we receive no reply from them. And Asturia seems very intent on bringing the criminals to justice, be it as live criminals or as dead corpses." Everyone in the room grew silent.

_They're going kill every one in that village!_ Van started to remember how he had met Merle in the same fashion. Sadly there were people in the world that had extreme hate for the 'beast-people.' He immediately thought of how many catpeople were orphaned, or had lost loved ones, just because Asturia wanted revenge for a dead king. He suddenly felt an uncontrollable anger. Without a word he stood up and walked out of the room. "Lord please wait!" someone shouted behind him, but he didn't even care to respond.

_They are attacking people in MY Kingdom! They are attacking defenseless people! They aren't even being given a trial, they're just being killed!_ Van could feel his blood boiling in his body.

"Lord Van!" he turned around to see Merle, a lot of Palace Guards and the two Chief Advisors running up to him. When they saw the look in his eyes, they understood what he felt. Out of all of them Jasmine and Merle understood the most. Jasmine because she was a catwoman and Merle because, well besides being a catwoman (yeah she grew up from being a catgirl) had lost her family in the same hateful manner.

Merle ran up to him and hugged him, tightly. "Be careful Lord Van," she said quietly. Van felt an odd, but not unwelcome feeling wash over him. He put his hand over her hair, running his finger through it, for once truly Cherishing a hug from Merle. He had never noticed how Lovingly she hugged him. _Why haven't I ever noticed this before?_ Van asked himself. "Don't worry Merle I will be." He reassured her by returning her hug. He faced to Jasmine, "Chief Advisor of Defense." "Yes My Lord." Jasmine bowed before Van, obviously knowing what would come next was an Order. "Inform the Chief Advisors of current events, tell the Chief Advisor of War to prepare the Grand Army in case they are needed, though I hope I am not leading us to War." "Don't worry Your Majesty, if you do, it is for a just cause." Jasmine replied, still kneeling in front of him. Van wasn't so sure if she was right in saying that. He hoped he wasn't causing a War, but he just couldn't let innocent people die on his land without doing something about it. Merle, almost sensing his self doubt, turned up to him, and with a smile and cheer in her blue eyes, said "Don't worry I'll always be by your side, backing you up Lord Van."

Smiling at Merle, Van turned on his heel and ordered a Palace Guard to come forward.

"Send a message to the Palace, tell them to release the Escaflowne."

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El Verdadero Odio:

EDIT: Made a few changes.


	5. Chapter 4: Shining Armour

Thanks for reviewing.

Macky thank you for reviewing since the beginning.

Inda as I informed you online Hitomi will be returning, either in this chapter or in the next one.

Oh side note, I don't know how much a guymelef weighs so lets pretend normally they weigh around 100 tons? I don't know so if anyone could tell me that would be great.

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Chapter 5: Shining Armour

Van walked to the shrine, which held the Escaflowne. The Shrine was made entirely out of white marble, and was reflecting the sunlight that shone in from the various windows. The Shrine looked amazing on any day, but the masterpiece of the Shrine was the Escaflowne itself. He looked at Escaflowne with admiration. And was satisfied with the results the Ispano engineers had done on improving it. He had the armor changed, he still kept the original design, but now the armor plating was now a beautiful white. It now gave of the impression that the Escaflowne was made of pure white light, instead of white painted metal. It also offered more, protection, and weighed several tons. Though many people did not believe the last part, but Escaflowne did now in fact weigh several tons_. He remembered how he would train in it for hours, only to learn how to lift his arms in it! But the training paid off_. Thought a proud Van. The training had paid of; Van was now able to move the 450-ton guymelef (again I don't know if that's a lot of weight for a guymelef.) with ease, he didn't even notice the weight anymore, he just felt like it was moving any part of his body. _That's why I changed the blade._ Escaflowne's blade had also been improved; it was now made of a stronger metal that rarely dulled, and was now also doubled in weight and length. Van had to get used to the blades improvements but soon learned to wield it one-handed. (Maybe I went overboard here?) _Training in Escaflowne made me stronger and faster in on-foot combat too, that's how I became a Master Swordsman._

Van neared the Escaflowne and placed in his Royal Sword in a slit on the floor before the Escaflowne. He turned the Royal Sword, also turning the slit and a small part of the floor, activating a mechanism. A small podium, also white marble, appeared out of the floor, resting on a beautiful red silk cloth was a new drag-energist. _Enchanted to bring out the full potential of Escaflowne,_ thought Van remembering the words of the Ispano that had given him the new drag-energist around 7 years ago. _Well let's see if it does just that._ He took the new drag-energist, this one a deep blood red, and cut his finger with his Royal Sword and let his blood seep into the drag-energist. He then placed it into the huge crystal on the left side of Escaflowne. Symbolizing the new blood pact, said crystal too, turned a blood red.

With a low rumble, Van felt as Escaflowne came back into existence.

Van's mind suddenly felt like a cool liquid had seeped into its mind. He had come to realize that this cool liquid was Escaflowne. After all, Escaflowne was a part of Van. He could feel when it took damage, and was sure it worked vice versa. Escaflowne had even begun to grow its own consciousness, sometimes talking to Van when he piloted it.

He opened the hatch to Escaflowne's pilot seat, and just as he was about to enter… "Lord Van!" Merle came running up to him and hugged him, "Lord Van…." Van noticed immediately that something was on her mind; a full life of friendship would do that to people (friends get close after a while you know?) and wondered what it was. "What is it Merle?" He asked her, truly not knowing what was the matter. "Why did you trust Fanelia to me?" Van hadn't thought of that until now. _Why did I trust it to her? Traditionally Kings only trust the Kingdom to the_ "Queens." Merle whispered, finishing his train of thought for him. He took Merle by the shoulders and looked at her, "Well talk about that later." And with that he entered Escaflowne, ready for battle.

_I shouldn't try that here…_

Shaking the idea to try his experiment at the particular time Van moved his feet, moving Escaflowne at the same time.

Merle moved out of the way as Escaflowne stood up. It was a sight to behold. Merle mused on how the wondrous guymelef seemed to flood the room with a nations pride, power of destructive Gods, all the while giving a feeling of security and care. _Or maybe that's because it reflects Lord Van,_ Merle thought affectionately, _My Knight in Shining Armour_.

Escaflowne transformed into its Dragon form, which also had its wings doubled to allow Escaflowne to actually fly. It spread it wings, sending huge air gusts throughout the shrine, lifted off the ground and began to fly away. It began to fly away towards battle.

Escaflowne being brought back sent a familiar feeling in Van's mind. Seeing it moving again reminded him of Hitomi. _Hitomi…_ Van muttered in his mind, suddenly missing the girl with all his heart.

Just as Escaflowne sent a feeling to Van, it also sent one to someone else.

Back on the Mystic Moon, back on Earth…

A high school class was taking a lesson in History. The teacher, catching one of her students looking out the window, asked, "What is so interesting that you can't spare one minute of your time to the Renaissance and its beginnings?"

The girl, still looking out the window and still daydreaming, replied, not caring if the teacher would understand or not.

"Van." Were the only words that came out of the lips of Hitomi Kanzaki.

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ElVerdaderoOdio thanks for Inda for pointing out a spelling error! 


	6. Chapter 5:Filled with Bad Things

Thank you Inda and Macky for reviewing, I am very happy that you too have stuck to this story since around the beginning. Though I think that the story isn't going well, so I might discontinue it. Well chapter five is mainly a battle scene. Just to let you know, this chapter maybe considered graphic. Someone please tell me the age of Van, Hitomi and Merle! I haven't seen the series so I forgot how old they were.

Oh side note when the Escaflowne talks it will be in BOLD and ITALICS.

Oh yeah I tried to give some of the mercenaries southern accents but it didn't end up sounding real, so pretend that they are just stupid.

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Chapter 6: The World is filled with Bad Things…

Van saw the small tribe camp, half in flames in the distance.

_Bastards!_ He thought fiercely. As he neared the camp he could see the hired mercenaries. They were 5 in total.

One of them was long-range guymelefs, outfitted with rather nasty looking ballistae in place of their arms, and the gray one next to it had one of its arms removed, in its place it had a quiver which held a large number of spears. _Probably the one that supplies ammunition to the long range one,_ Van thought. One was a dark blue, holding up a very menacing two-handed axe that seemed to be made of a strong type of obsidian, giving the axe a depressing black color. There was one that was painted a sickening shade of red, that was apparently still having its fun, by throwing helpless horses into the air, and not bothering to catch them (I have nothing against horses, I just needed something to egg Van on.) _What the hell?_ Van felt an indescribable feeling of disgust come to his mind, no, not disgust, but a deep and truly sincere feeling of hatred for these people. _Who kills helpless animals and people? And enjoys it? How is someone so sick aloud in the world? _The fires that were indiscriminately burning innocent homes, torturing sweet lives, and killing the trust in the world for the tribal members reminded Van of how Fanelian was attacked. It reminded him of how many of the familiar faces he never saw after that attack, how the story books his mother used to read him were now gone.

Van wished he hadn't seen the other guymelef.

It was one of the guymelef that Zaibach used during the War. Unchanged, still the same design. _Still the same damned piece of shit._

He transformed the Escaflowne into the fighter mode and landed with a deafening crash as the 450-ton machine hit the ground, sending shockwaves throughout the whole area. All the mercenaries, turned to face him, except the Zaibach model, which continue to torch all the buildings. Van spoke up in a loud, yet calm voice. "I am Lord Fanel, Ruler of all Fanelian and I Order you to stop! You are all to leave Fanelian lands and never to leave." putting heavy emphasis on the words Order and Stop, and above all restraining himself to kill these disturbed **_atrocities of human life._**

Van felt an odd feeling come over him, the surge of bloodlust.

_**Destroy! Annihilate! Decimate! Do your Duty as King and Protect the Kingdom until your last Breath…**_

Van realized that his source of bloodlust was coming from the Escaflowne, and became worried, for the Escaflowne had changed when he last used it. _What could be causing it to act like this?_ Throughout his mind, no answer came to his mind, and he became more worried as the voice of Escaflowne became louder in his mind.

**_Eradicate! Obliterate!_** **_Death to All who oppose Fanelia!_**

As Van tried to suppress the desire for blood that crawled out of the part of his very consciousness that Escaflowne inhabited the mercenaries talked to each other. "What do we do?" the one it the long-range guymelef asked, rather worriedly. "They never said anything about this?" "Quit yer whining Rufus! All we do is tell tha King tha' we're here ahn official business for Asturia! Problem solved!" "Sure!" Rufus replied to the guymelef next to him, "that's what you always say Vincent. and how many times has the problem been solved? Zero! That's how I lost this eye!" "I say we kill him," interrupted the guymelef with the obsidian looking axe, "it'll do for good practice and besides, Harbinger hasn't had real blood in awhile." The blue guymelef suddenly holding the huge axe very firmly. "All you care about, Ingo is that damn axe. What does the boss say?" The guymelef that had been flinging horses into the air asked. "Pfft! All YOU ever care about is what the boss says, you dumb-ass Harold." They turned to the Zaibach Armor, which was now coming up to the group of mercenaries. "Well tell him were leaving," "WHAT!" they all interrupted, "But Harbinger!" Ingo replied. "The money we could make from selling THAT guymelef!" said the Harold said eyeing Escaflowne. "SILENCE!" boomed the boss in the Zaibach Armor. "We will make it seem that we are leaving, then we will kill him." _Lord Fanel will get revenge for bringing my homeland to its destruction. _The pilot inside the Zaibach Armor though bitterly. _NO ONE! But I mean NO ONE will ever claim that they have beaten Zaibach! "_OK this is the plan…"

Van was so preoccupied fighting Escaflowne in his mind; he barely noticed when the Zaibach Armor approached him. "I am sorry for any inconvenience Your Majesty"

_**Beware!**_

As the pilot spoke to Van in the Escaflowne, the other mercenaries started to walk away. "We are just mercenaries hired by Asturia, but obviously there has been some mistake for us to have fallowed our target all the way to Fanelian lands. We request for our pardon and we will be on our way."

Even though the Zaibach's guymelef pilot spoke in a calm manner, something told Van to stay on guard. He didn't notice as a suddenly strong wind started blowing in. More importantly he didn't even notice as the gray guymelef loaded a metal spear onto the ballista of the long-range guymelef. He didn't notice as the long-range guymelef took aim at him. Yet he still reached for Escaflowne's sword.

The Zaibach Armor transformed into its flight mode, and flew straight up, leaving a blinding trail of smoke as it shot up,

Rufus shot one of its spears,

Ingo started its charging run towards Escaflowne,

Harold drew its sword and started running to the side of the battle,

Vincent drew a mace it had concealed in the quiver,

Escaflowne drew its own sword,

The spear advanced through the air, aimed at the energist in Escaflowne left side,

Van easily deflected the spear, hitting his sword and sending a myriad of sparks flying all over the guymelef. He readied his sword just in time for it to meet the Harbinger, a great obsidian axe, being driven in a straight line, with the intention of cutting the young King in two. Van held Escaflowne's sword in the right hand with the other one free. He was about to punch the Ingo's head when Harold, who had avoided attention by running to the edge of the battle, came in and grabbed Escaflowne's free arm. "HAHA! I got you Your Majesty!" shrieked the pilot from inside the guymelef, Van noting the glee in his voice.

_DAMN!_ Van was stuck.

His sword arm was in a deadlock with the blue guymelef, and he had his free arm held on to tightly by the Harold, who had a sword in the other hand, raised its sword to strike at Van. As the Harold raised its sword to strike at Van, he left his whole torso exposed, with the blade high in the air and the only free hand was grabbing Escaflowne's left arm. Van saw the perfect opportunity. He moved all his weight on his sword arm, pushing Ingo off of him, and sending him toppling backwards. The sudden surprise of seeing Ingo be thrown of an enemy surprised Harold making his grip loosen, allowing Van to shake free from its grasp, turn to face it and swing his sword vertically

_How in the hell did he get Ingo off of him! That oaf that is Ingo weighs tons! This guy is-_ here Harold's thoughts were completely stopped as he was hit with such an intensity, that it sent all of the armor flying off his guymelef, ripping several gyros and mechanisms, and completely taking the plating that covered him in the guymelef. Harold was exposed. Sweat dripped down his forehead as he tried to move away, his commands were only answered with various mechanical failures. Oil had begun leaking into the half opened compartment, and he began to wet himself. He looked on with horror as the Escaflowne made its left hand into a fist and poised it ready to strike. Harold wanted to scream, he wanted to cry, he wanted to run away as Escaflowne's fist came at him with an amazing speed. For a split second after it made contact with him, Harold could feel everything. From the sudden impact from the guymelef's fist connecting with his body, to his organs being crushed by his bones, and his bones ripping out through his skin as the were moved out of place, before being crushed. And then Harold, mercenary, out-law, knew nothing more as his heart exploded, gushing out blood, and his brain was flattened by Escaflowne's fist.

Escaflowne grew more bloodthirsty as it saw the man's body burst into the crimson liquid that was his blood. The blood from the body was flowing out of the man's body like various red rivers, staining the already red pilot compartment. Van move the hand away to regain his fighting stance, but Escaflowne saw the crushed man. Escaflowne saw the pile of ripped organs, crushed bones that was once a man, blood and pus seeping from all the various crevices in his body.**_ I need More…_**

Vincent loaded all the spears onto the long-range guymelef,

Rufus took aim, and fired again,

Ingo hit the grounds, sending out a huge cloud of dirt and debris,

Harold's guymelef crumples to the ground, blood running out of its torso, out of its pilot's crushed corpse, with a loud thud it reaches its resting place,

The Zaibach Armor, still high in the air, sees the battle unfold,

_I didn't need to kill him_, Van somberly thought to himself, _so why did I? Why did I lose control?_ He shook these thoughts away and concentrated on the now. Van turned to face Ingo, which he had previously sent falling over backwards, and saw that he was still on the ground, defenseless. _Why did they attack me? _Van though tohimself_, they said that they were going to leave, so why did they attack?_

_This King isn't some pushover; _the pilot winced when he noticed he had excruciating pain coming from his abdomen. He looked down and to his horror saw that a piece of the control mechanism of his guymelef had been dislodged from the cockpit, and lodged right through his stomach. _Damn I'm not getting out of this one._ As he tried moving the taste of his own blood made its way into his mouth, and he could feel something wet and unwanted near his pants. The sickening realization that the force from the fall, combined with the machine part sticking in his stomach had caused his body to evacuate all of his stomachs contents, along with some stomach lining.

Van saw the state Ingo was in, _Stay down; I don't want to punish violence with violence._ Escaflowne crawled into his mind, booming into his very soul, **_Of course You want to, it's my duty, and above all it is Your Duty._**

Ingo saw what was once his friend Harold, and felt rage for his dead friend, _I'll get this bastard for you Harold. _The grasped Harbinger, and attempted to stand, but was stopped as Escaflowne's foot smashed the blue guymelef's legs. Van would have smashed Ingo again, but had to dodge the way as a spear flew inches from the head of Escaflowne. "Damn! That was way to close! I have to get rid of that damn archer!" Van angrily stated. He sunk his foot deeper into the blue guymelef's legs and with his free hand he grabbed the great axe. "I'd rather eat shit than have my Harbinger taken away from me!" Harold held on with all his strength. But Van was strong, too strong, and off went Harbinger, with the blue guymelef's ands still attached.

_**Don't leave an enemy the chance to fight back. **_

And with this Escaflowne took control and stabbed the blue guymelef right in the head. The blade went right into the cockpit, and had ended Ingo's pain by cutting off the top half of his body.

Van started running towards Vincent and Rufus.

"Shit! Shit! Shit! He's coming this way! Do something Vincent!" "Why ME?" "Because I have no short range weapons!" With much hesitation Vincent charged at the oncoming Van. Van simply threw the Harbinger at him, hitting and dismembering the gray guymelef's weapon hand.

Rufus tried to take aim on Escaflowne, but the huge tremors it sent out as it ran at him were throwing his aim off. He closed his eyes and shot, hoping it would hit something. With his free hand Van caught the spear that wasn't anywhere near hitting him, turned it in his hand to face the other way and stabbed it diagonally into Rufus' guymelef. The spear being driven through the guymelef's body cut one of the pressure lines needed to fire the left ballistae attached to the shoulders, and it also caused the ballistae arm that had just malfunctioned to go limp. Something told Van that the long-range guymelef's pilot was VERY nervous and turned behind the guymelef, grabbing it with his free hand. He turned the long-range guymelef in the direction of Vincent, who was still on the floor, and slammed the right ballista with all his might.

Rufus still had his eyes closed when the top-right part of the cockpit suddenly crashed down onto him, dislodging his shoulder, giving him several deep and serious cuts near his now dislocated arm, and neck. He opened his eyes when the curiosity got the better of him. He looked at his right side only to see various bent and sharp metal pieces along with wires, and mechanical components, pressing painfully against his skin. He couldn't feel his right arm, but still noticed that near his shoulder there was a huge gash revealing his muscle, bones, and veins and arteries, which were gushing out blood like fountains. When Rufus felt his guymelef hit repeatedly he closed his eyes and tightened his grip on the triggers, sending the remaining 6 spears in the direction of Vincent.

This was exactly what Van wanted.

The out of six spears only 3 hit Vincent. One of the spears hit him in the chest, sending out oil and sparks everywhere as it pierced its armor. The second spear hit him in the torso, and Vincent shrieked with terror as he felt the sudden impact echo through the hollow spaces of his guymelef. And as he looked up, through the slits that allowed him to see the outside world, he saw a spear coming right at him.

The spear erupted violently through the guymelef's backside. Along with the spear, there was gears, oil, wiring, metal, blood, intestines, shreds of lungs and part of a head, and various other body organs that were once Vincent.

The pilot in the Zaibach Armor, looked down and surveyed the battle, it was not good. His team which had started with 5 men was now down to two, and only was left functioning, he held position in midair, and suddenly transformed into fighter mode, plummeting towards the ground, Van, Escaflowne, and the Battlefield.

Van felt something give him a nudge in his mind, and looked up to see the Zaibach Armor with its sword lowered in an attempt to use the freefall to strengthen the perceived blow. Van had to do something and fast.

_Damn if only I had,_ he looked at the long-range guymelef, Rufus still inside and still with his eyes closed, _That's it! _He lifted the guymelef with his free hand (Vans gotten really strong mind you) and raised it using it as a shield.

Rufus feeling the sudden movement of his guymelef, and knowing he didn't cause it opened his eyes and looked. He quickly shut them again, just as his Boss' sword went right into him, killing him from the impact of the landing.

_DAMMIT! HE USED MY MEN AGAINST ME! I WONT LET THIS FANELIAN SHIT GET THE BEST OF AN EX-ZAIBACH SOLDIER!_

Van attempted to hit the Zaibach Armor, with his sword, but was deflected by a swift and sudden blow. **_Kill the Hated Enemy._**

Escaflowne suddenly felt to be on fire. Agh! What the hell is going on? Van felt his whole mind taken over by Escaflowne's burning thirst for killing.

**You will defend Fanelia with Your Life! You are the King! You are the Ruler of Fanelia! None stand before Us!**

_I am the Ruler and Protector of Fanelia!_

_I will Defend this Beautiful Land for all my Life!_

All of Van's senses where bombarded with a feeling of intense loathing for all that opposes Fanelia, and he felt this hatred escape his body every time he swung and hit the Zaibach Armor with his blade. He was blind with rage, he did not hear the pilot call out in terror "I surrender! I Surrender!" He did not see how he had continuously attacked the Zaibach Armor until it was no more that a crumpled and battered heap of junk. It was reduced to no more than scrap when Van had awoken from his bloodlust driven rage.

He walked over to the Escaflowne and knelt it down. Opening the hatch Van leapt down to the charred remains of the camp. He took a short stroll through the burned remains of tents, rugs, food, horses and people. He heart sank all the way to depths he did not know existed when he saw the arm of a little girl, whose body was covered by rubble, still holding on to a little rag doll. He took the little doll from the girl's hand, and brushed off some charred material from its head.

_Why? Why couldn't I get here on time?_

He looked around the ruined camp. He wondered what it meant, why things like these still happen in the world, even with the War over.

He sat down in the burned grass. And lost himself in depressing thoughts. After awhile he came to a saddening conclusion.

The World is filled with Bad Things… 

"Lord Van!"

He looked up and in the distance he saw Merle with a whole platoon of the kingdoms guymelef's.

He saw her and was reminded of an equally cheerful thought.

The World is also filled with Good Things that are worth protecting.

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El Verdadero Odio; so what does everyone think? I don't know how it went, I've never written action scenes before. 


	7. Chapter 6: Loved Him in Secret

I guess the fight scene was all right then.

Well on to the next chapter, oh yeah someone told me to put that I don't own Escaflowne but you all know that either way so to hell with it. This chapter really does nothing for the story by the way, just thought I should write on about Merle.

Next chapter is all Hitomi I promise.

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Chapter 6: Loved Him in Secret

_Mmmmmh I hope he's ok!_

_What am I talking about? This is Lord Van! Ok course he's ok!_ Merle paced the throne room various times, worried over Van. _But what if they catch him off guard? No Lord Van's too smart for that._ We paced the room again and again… and again. Anxiety clearly visible in her face.

Twenty guards were present and so was Jasmine The Chief Advisor of Defense and Jarred the Chief Advisor of War. They were trying to call her down, stating "Lord Fanel is a Master Swordsman, there is no way are a couple of thug mercenaries getting the best of him!" and "Lord Fanel will be fine, I am sure of it." But Merle wouldn't hear it. _I hope he's ok. Mmmh I should have gone with him, besides when do I ever pay attention when he tells me to stay behind? He knows I never leave his side, so its just stupid of him to think I would listen_. She debatedwith herself over what to do. _Should I stay put? After all that would show that I am responsible. But if I leave now he wont think I'm responsible, and he'll never trust me with Fanelia again!_ Merle quickly wondered why had he trusted her with Fanelia, but that thought was overcome by more worries. She started mumbling to herself "What should I do? What do I do? What do I do?"

Hundreds upon thousands of outcomes came to her mind; all of them making her worries just grow more and more. So, not figuring what to do, Merle would just continue to pace and pace and pace and pace the room again and again and again… and again.

Again she asked herself this time in a louder voice, "What should I do? What should I do? What should I do? What should I do?" _I am going to snap if I don't know what to do!_

One of the new Palace Guards over in the corner couldn't take her pacing anymore. He was new and not used to her character. _If she asks, "What do I do?" one more freakin' time I am going to snap!_

Merle stopped pacing.

_Finally!_ The guard thought, relieved.

"WHAT SHOULD I DO?" Merle cried out, eyes watery and ears hanging low.

The poor Palace Guard snapped, "I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE!"

"I agree with that guard lets go get Lord Van back safe and sound!" Merle proclaimed, finally happy someone else couldn't take being without their King. Merle added sweetly in her mind, _After all he is the best King there is. _With this the Chief Advisor of Defense ordered a platoon of soldiers to be readied, Chief Advisor of War ordered the best guymelefs to be brought and used by the aforementioned soldiers.

As Merle, Jasmine and Jarred, and other Palace Guards went out to get the troops ready to retrieve Van no one noticed three guards in the background. Two of the guards were holding back the guard who had snapped, apparently when he had snapped he wanted to kill Merle, or at the very least injure her, and his friends were holding him back saying "Don't do it Fred! She's not worth it!"

Jarred and Jasmine looked at each other when all the soldiers were assembled. They looked back at Merle who was STILL pacing. "Wow she is really worried." Jasmine murmured, "I wonder why?" beside her Jarred gave out a short chuckle. Jasmine turned to him and asked "What?" Jarred kept his gaze on the catgirl, who was now running about yelling at the soldiers, "Go faster! Our King could be in trouble and this is the fasted we could move!" And noticed how many of the soldiers were staring at her, flinching every time she would yell at them to go faster. "Well," Jarred finally uttered, "its very obvious what's going on here." "What do you mean?" But before Jasmine's question was answered a man came up to Jarred and informed that the guymelefs are being readied, and that he is needed at the barracks. Jarred started in the direction of the barracks with the man walking just behind him. Jasmine kept her eye on Merle.

Merle was shouting left and right to hurry up with the platoon. _How long does it take to send out a rescue team _the catgirl asked herself. Merle was downright angry at the soldiers by now, angry at how slow they were moving. _If I had decided to do this earlier, I would know what has happened out there to Lord Van. _Merle, having great hearing, overheard something that made her blush like mad. Over by some readied guymelefs she overheard two soldiers talking. "Damn this girl is crazy! I mean I know this is the King and all, but jeez this is too much shouting! Besides she's acting like its taking us forever to get ready when in fact only a minute has passed since she gave to Order to get ready!" to this the second soldier replied "c'mon man, go easy on the girl, she's just worried over her boyfriend." This is where Merle paid even more attention. "She's just in love with him is all." "You sure she's just not crazy?" "C'mon man trust me. Remember when you were all over that bar girl and tried catching a sword in the air, BLINDFOLDED, just to get her attention?" The other soldier just scratched the back of his head. "I still say she's crazy. Or maybe just on her period." Another soldier passed by and added his two cents into the conversation "just imagine though, the King's bad temper and this girl's combined? The kids are going to be something else!" The tree soldiers laughed hardily at this comment, and continue to get ready.

_Kids? Me and Lord Van? Me be Queen?_ Merle thought each idea bringing on more happiness than the last. _Kids?_ She was lost in her thoughts and didn't notice her tail was swaying happily side to side and she had started to blush. An officer in armor came up to her and bowed, "Lady Merle." He notice she was lost in thought so spoke up louder, "Lady Merle" yet Merle still stood there lost in a Romantic Fantasy with her Lord Van.

Most of the castle had the idea, and rightly so, that the catgirl had some sort of feelings towards the King, but no one, save Lilia, that she was in Love with him. So the officer, still kneeling by Merle decided to use another way to get her attention.

"HEY LORD FANEL'S GIRLFRIEND!"

Immediately Merle turned around. "Huh?" "My Lady, the platoon is en route to aid Lord Fanel with the mercenaries that are attacking the tribal area." Merle cheered up Finally! "Ok I am going with you!" "Yes my Lady I shall ready a horse for you to ride on." He bowed his head before leaving to ready the horse.

On the way to look for Lord Fanel, the officer wondered how Merle never noticed that they used that same line 'HEY LORD FANEL'S GIRLFRIEND!' on her various times before. _Maybe she's just got a very short-term memory. _He then quickly added, _well that is, a short-term memory when it comes to things not involved to The King_.

Merle suddenly realized that someone had called her 'Lord Fanel's Girlfriend!' and had the strangest feeling that various other people had called her that before. _I'm just imagining things, after all I do have a short-term memory, well that is, a short-term memory when it comes to things not involved to Lord Van._

She squinted her eyes, as she saw smoke on the horizon, and urged her horse to go faster.

As she left the whole of the platoon let out a sigh of relief. "Well thank heavens she left!" A soldier proclaimed from his guymelef. "I don't know how the King does it. How does he put up with her yelling? I would have snapped if it was me in his shoes!" Several men laughed and nodded in agreement, a voice from the back of the platoon was heard "I wonder if she has made people snap before?" "Several men started agreeing with him, and others were disagreeing, saying it was impossible to snap just because of an overly energetic catgirl. "Tell that to Fred!" The whole platoon remembered the new recruit, and thought to themselves _Damn._

As Merle neared the tribe she saw the Escaflowne kneeling down with the hatch open. She hurried over to that spot. And dismounted her horse. When she looked around for him and didn't find him she started to panic. When the platoon had reached the edge of the town, this is when she saw him, holding something in his hand as he knelt near some rubble. _Thank heavens he's ok!_ She began to mentally scold him in her mind, _don't ever leave me alone while you go into some battle! What if you get killed! What would I do them? Huh? What would I do without you? How would I know what happened to you if I wasn't there to see you? _

But feeling more overjoyed than mad, she ran over to him and screamed "Lord Van!"

Van looked up and in the distance he saw Merle, with a whole platoon of the guymelef's trailing behind.

She hugged him in a strong embrace, which he returned, and did what she knew how to do best, did what she had been doing for all her life.

She Loved Him in Secret.

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El Verdadero Odio; well that was chapter 6, I was thinking about making this chapter about both Hitomi and Merle but decided to give Hitomi a whole chapter as the next one. So now its Hitomi's turn to get worried over Van. 


	8. Chapter 7: I need to tell Him

Well I promised it so here is a chapter dedicated only to Hitomi. I forgot the name of the school she went to though so I'll need help with that.

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Chapter 7: I need to tell Him

Hitomi was worried, she somehow felt uneasy, she knew something was happening on Gaea, something was happening to Van. She had the odd feeling during her final exam for college. She was so worried for him, worried by the fact that he could be in danger and not be able to help. _I Hope you're all right._

As she exited the school grounds and went to the nearby park she sat, still wondering what was going on. She was quite fond of this park, as it reminded her "Hey Hitomi!" She looked up and saw her best friend Yukari, and her boyfriend, Amano. She remembered how they had been together since high school, and were talking about engagement. _They've been together since I came back from Gaea; wow a lot has changed, hasn't it?_

Sitting next to her, Yukari sat down. Next to Yukari, sat Amano, who put his arm around his girlfriend. Yukari was the first to complain over the finals. "Oh God! Its finally over!" "Yeah I thought it would never end!" "Knowing you Hitomi, you probably looked forward to them, just so you could show off your good grades to your parents!" Hitomi quipped back "Yeah Yukari, and I'm sure you don't look forward to showing YOUR test scores to your parent!" Yukari, suddenly becoming very embarrassed, countered, "just because I've failed 3 times in a row doesn't mean I'll fail this time too!"

Every one was about to agree with her reasoning, but all realized that knowing Yukari, she would probably fail this one too.

They all suddenly broke out in laughter, even Yukari.

Amano started looking around, and asked "Hey where's Tien?" they all looked around suddenly wondering where he was.

Tien. Tien was someone the group met near the beginning of the first year of college. Well Amano knew him before that, but was a new acquaintance to Hitomi and Yukari. He used to be in Hitomi's and Yukari's classes in freshman year. (I don't know if that is how college works in Japan, or even here for that matter, but lets pretend it does. ) Since the begging of their meeting it was obvious that Tien had a crush on Hitomi, and made several attempts on her, which due to Hitomi's Love for Van, she turned him down, at each attempt.

However…

One day, 3 years ago, Hitomi was feeling very lonely. She began to miss Van more and more each day. Her friend, who she never told about Van or Gaea, were confused over why she was acting this way. One day when she was studying for a test at Tien's apartment, she became depressed again. Tien tried to comfort her, and Hitomi, for the first time ever, noticed how he looked and reminder her of Van, so in loneliness, she took him into her arms and into bed. Hitomi felt horrible the next day, all she could think was _What did I do? What did I do? How could I have done this to Van? _In her sad attempts to try to justify the means she came to horrid thoughts _I just needed something, I just needed someone to take the pain of missing Him_. A thought crossed her mind, _maybe Van has done something like this too._ For this she immediately felt shame and guilt, _no of course He wouldn't have, Van Loved me… He Loved me and I repaid his Love by sleeping with someone else!_ Hitomi though about telling Tien why she did what she did, she thought of telling him sorry for leading him on, but she never found the courage to do it. And over the course of the past 3 years, 9 since she had been in Gaea, she became his girlfriend. And over those 3 years, she began to Love Tien, and her 'Undying Love' for Van, died.

"Hey Guys!" They all turned and saw Tien come over to them. When he reached them he turned to Hitomi, and kissed her on the lips "Hey sweetie." "Hey Love" Hitomi responded.

Somewhere on Gaea, Van shuddered.

They started talking about many miscellaneous things, what movies they had seen, books they've read, things they've done, etc.

"So this new movie is opening this weekend. Anybody want to join us?" Yukari said, eyes wide that nobody would say 'yes.' When Tien said "Sure we'll go." Her eyes went down in sadness. Hitomi saw this and wanted to ask her what was wrong, but not in front of the guys. "Hey I'm hungry, Love can you go get me a hotdog?" she said nonchalantly, Yukari noticed what she was up to and asked Amano the same. "Sure." The boys said and set off to find some much needed hotdogs.

When the boys were out of hearing range, Hitomi asked "why did you seem so disappointed when Tien and I said we were coming with you?" Yukari only sighed and said "oh its nothing." But Hitomi knew her friend better than that.

"Well if you say it is nothing."

Yukari was slightly confused that Hitomi gave up so easily.

Hitomi just looked straight ahead and said "Maybe Amano should hear about a certain somebody's secret?"

Yukari looked at her friend, an expression of shock on her face, "Hitomi you wouldn't dare!" "Oh wouldn't I?" a mischievous smirk across her face. "Look there is a tree right over there, the perfect place to show him what happens when you-" "OK! OK!" Yukari said nervously. "So let me ask you again why did you seem so disappointed when Tien and I said we were coming with you?" Yukari started to blush in red. And Hitomi started to wonder if she still really wanted to know what she would say. "Well," the redheaded girl started "I was sort of Hoping that I could be alone with Amano for the movie." Hitomi didn't understand, and it showed, so Yukari continued "well the movie is a romantic movie, so I was hoping that it would set a romantic mood for us. And well Amano's apartment is just a short walk so I was thinking that… well I don't know… that he could come over to the apartment, and…" Hitomi knew where THIS was headed, but still felt the need to say "and then what?" Yukari blushed so deeply her face almost became as red as her hair, "and I don't now… we could have our first time?"

"Oh, Yukari…" Hitomi thought to herself in her mind, _oh Yukari you just want to me with the one you Love. Just like I am._

**_Eradicate! Obliterate!_** **_Death to All who oppose Fanelia!_**

_What was that? _Hitomi suddenly saw Van in the middle of burnt remains, holding a burnt doll. She saw the remains of 5 guymelefs, and even a Zaibach guymelef, that was in a heap. She could feel the sadness and grief, mixed with another uglier emotion emanating from Van as he stood in the remains. She could her Van's thoughts, _I still Love you Hitomi, I'll wait for you to return._

"Hitomi what's wrong?"

"Uh I have to go." She stammered as she picked up her bag, and started running off towards her old high school. She ran towards her old race track, thinking _I have to tell Him I've moved on, I can't do this to Him, I can't make Him wait Forever for something that will never get there. I can't do that to Van, after all He's done for me I possible can't Hurt Him like that!_

When she finally reached the racetrack, the memory of when she first met him came flooding back. She remembered bumping into him, saving his life, and the whole adventure that followed suit.

Van if only I could tell you. If only I could help you move on, it couldn't possibly work out between us either way. Van I need to see you.

And before she knew it the familiar feeling of being pulled up into the sky came upon her, accompanied by a blinding light of the pillar.

When she opened her eyes, she was back on Gaea.

_I need to tell Him!

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_

ElVerdaderoOdio: huh, I'm not really good at writing for Hitomi by herself, maybe I could do it better in the later chapters with her.


	9. Chapter 8: Sexual Plans and Tensions

Ok even though the last chapter ends with Hitomi arriving on Gaea, this chapter, and probably the next 2 or 3, is centered on what happens after Van arrives from fighting the mercenaries. It's all due to some time-distortion thing that I wont even bother explaining.

Oh there is some sexual reference in this chapter so be warned, or in the case of Metal Overlord read on.

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Chapter 8: Sexual Plans and Tensions...

_It had been two weeks since the mercenaries attacked, and Lord Van still hasn't cheered up. _Merle wandered through the halls, she would be with Van now, except he was in a meeting with some of his Chief Advisors, _dammit! I hate it when they have a meeting, he usually stays in there for the whole day! _Merle didn't see much to do so she went and sought out her friend Lilia. "I don't know what to do Lilia! He's been sulking around so much, you'd think Hitomi just left again!" "Who's Hitomi?" asked a confused Lilia, "Oh right you weren't here when that whole thing happened." Its true Lilia was in Asturia during most of the war, so she never met Hitomi. "So? Just cheer him up already." Replied Lilia, like it was a simple matter with a simple solution.

Merle nearly snapped, and yelled with a ferocity that would deafen most people, "YOU DON'T THINK I'VE TRIED EVERYTHING HUMANELY (this doesn't sound right coming from a half-cat) POSSIBLE TO TRY TO CHEER HIM UP! WHAT KIND OF BEST FRIEND WOULD I BE IF I DIDN'T TRY!"

But all this accomplished is make a grin appear on Lilia's face. Merle noticed and became interested, "Why are you grinning like that? If you know a way to cheer up Lord Van tell me now before I claw your eyes out!" she said, half threatening, half joking. "Are you sure you tried E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G?" she said, heavy pronunciation in every single letter in everything.

"Huh what do you mean?" asked a V-E-R-Y confused catgirl. Lilia looked at the catgirl wide-eyed, and slowly asked "You don't know what I mean?" nothing, the catgirl still confused, "serious?", still nothing from Merle, "OH MY GOD you don't know do you?" still no understanding from Merle, just a slight annoyance, "how could a girl not know? It's just prepos--" "Ok just tell me already!" interrupted the catgirl. Lilia looked around the room, and said "ok but not here, meet me at my chambers in an hour, when my shift is over."

Merle still looked confused, "why don't you tell me here?" Lilia turned a slight red, "because I can't talk about that here! Just meet me in my chambers in an hour ok?"

Merle seemed very content that she had found a solution to Van's happiness, she walked down the halls, very happy._ She seemed real sure it would cheer up Lord Van, oh I have such a great feeling about this!_

In the Council Room, Van shuddered, _I suddenly got a bad feeling._

One Hour Later…

Merle waited quietly in Lilia's chambers as she scurried about looking for something, opening her drawers and throwing stuff out of them, looking under her bed and mumbling something. This had been going on for around half an hour, and Merle was starting to get bored, and annoyed, and when ever Merle gets annoyed, someone usually ends up with claw marks on their face. Finally Lilia held up some old dusty looking books and sighed, "Finally I found them." "What are you talking about Lilia, those books where right there on your table, when I got here." Lilia hadn't noticed that and asked, "Well, if that were true then why didn't you say anything?" "Because you didn't tell me what we were looking for!" Spat back Merle. Lilia suddenly felt stupid, and replied with a well thought out response, "whatever." She set the books down for Merle to see.

"How are these books going to help me make Lord Van happier?" asked Merle, who still hadn't bothered to look at the books, _Ugh I hate reading!_

"Merle just look at the books already!" yelled a slightly ticked of Lilia. Merle looked down glanced at the books and said, "what about them?" "Merle how about the titles already!"

"_The Six Ways to A Pleasurable Life _by Baron von Fondlebottom the Magnificent Bastard?"

Merle started to laugh uncontrollably, 'snicker' Baron von Fondlebottom! HAHAHAHA!…. I can't believe his stu….HAHAHA! the Magnificent Bas-HAHAHAHA!" She started to roll around on the bed, still laughing and clutching her sides. _I don't know why she's laughing, its just some guys name._

Lilia just ignored her and continued to open up the hefty book. She threw it over to Merle, and giggled as the very heavy book landed with a thud on the poor catgirl's face. Lilia said "read page 2,734." Merle, after getting over the initial shock of the book landing on her face, started to do the most dreaded thing she could do, read.

"As we all know the mouth and tongue are very sensitive parts of the body. People in love, or in plain lust, have found that caressing the lips, the partners tongue, or the partners mouth with their own tongue may enhance a kiss. But very recently through some imagination and exploration, people have found that the mouth, tongue and lips can be used to stimulate in other ways."

_What the hell is he talking about? Where else would I kiss Lord Van? _Suddenly a small depression came over Merle_, I mean where would Hitomi kiss him?_

Lilia saw her friend had stopped reading and strictly said "keep reading." "Huh? Oh right." Merle continued to read on, "the mouth can also be used to stimulate the male's pe- HEY! This is one of THOSE books!" Merle snapped, before mentioning a certain male body part. Lilia suddenly quipped back, "oh c'mon Merle! From what you tell me you've been after Lord Fanel since you were little, and what are you now? 23? And you mean to tell me that you've never once had a sexual dream about him?" Merle suddenly had no comeback for this, and just looked down at the floor, "well Merle?" Lilia looked at her friend, hands on her hips.

"Well yeah, maybe one of two." _One or two BILLION_, she added in her mind. "But the way I've dreamt it, it would be romantic and nice and soft, and well" _Oh why am I telling her this! I should just stop right here and now _"… not this graphic!" In her mind, Merle wanted to stop talking right there, she didn't want any more of her Fantasies to get out, but no, she just had to keep talking, blabbing out more things. Merle looked through the book and stopped at a picture, "I mean look at this! Even if I wanted to my tail would get in the way!" she flipped the book again, "what about this? Hell I choke when I try eating a whole banana!" she would have kept going through more examples but was stopped when Lilia raised her hand in protest.

"Wait I told you to read page 2,734?" Merle looked at her and said "Yes."

"Oh I'm sorry I meant to read page 273!" Merle, wanted to pounce and claw her eyes out, "why didn't you tell ME?" she said, a vein very visible on her forehead. "I just wanted to see if you've ever Dreamt of Lord Fanel." She said matter-o-factly. Merle wanted to die, _so I could have Lied and said that I have never had those types of Dreams? Oh my gods! Now, beside knowing I Love Lord Van, she also knows I've got the hots for him!_

Lilia noticed the look of utter embarrassment and mortification on Merle, and said "You know its only natural to want someone when you Love them."

Merle felt slightly relieved by her friend's statement, and said "Well what's so different about page…um…" "273?" "yeah! What so different about that page?"

Lilia started to explain, "Because that chapter is about the ways to give hints to someone. So all you do is talk sweet with Lord Fanel and he will slip right out of that depression and right into your pants… err… I mean into a happy mood!" Merle was about to ask what she was going to really say, but then the brilliance of her plan hit her. "Hey your right! Lord Van will cheer up! Thanks for the great idea Lilia!" She grabbed the book and put it under her arm as she ran out of the room on all fours, eager to read the book to help Lord Van out of his sulking mood.

Van was in the training area, he had just finished training with 6 other officers, and was now overseeing a legion from his army training in hand-to-hand combat. After fighting with the mercenaries, he started to train more extensively, after deciding that he was unsatisfied with how the battle went. _After a long-ass meeting with the Chief Advisors nothing does the body better than 2 hours of training._ As he overlooked their training, he felt pride in His Country. _Fanelia has come a long way in 9 years._

"Lord Fanel!" Van turned around and saw one of the many friends he had in the Grand Army. "Ah Raynor! How have you been? I haven't seen you since you took up that assignment on Fort. Moonmoth." Raynor, walked up to Van and gave him a handshake. He was a well-built man for his age, with brown hair, though it was shaved, and slightly greenish eyes. He and Van had met during the Rebuilding and became friends, even more so when Raynor pledged allegiance to Van, and became a slightly low officer in the Army. However just because of his low rank did not mean that Van would not talk to him.

_Just one thing that makes him one of the greatest Kings to have ever lived, he doesn't care about title, or rank, or even if the person is a peasant, he will always take time to talk to them, and talk to them in a good manner._

"So Raynor how is your wife Kerrigan?" "Oh everything is just great! Our first baby is due by the end of the 8th moon." "Ah that's great for you Raynor! Send Kerrigan my respects." "What about you Van? Do you still think about the Lady from the Mystic Moon?" Van became slightly more serious, "every day and minute of my Life, old friend." All Raynor could do is nod, he himself remembered when he was a young man, and had met his true love Kerrigan, who he ended up being happily married to. He decided to try something to cheer his friend up. "How about a match?" Van immediately accepted.

Merle was wandering about the training area, looking for Van; _I heard he was around here somewhere…_

As the two entered an arena, and drew their swords, a crowd started to gather around them. Soldiers started making wagers, "I have 20 on the King! Who wants to place their bets on the Officer?" "Are you kidding? He'll lose for sure! Give me 50 on the King!" _I'd be worried if any one bet on me, _thought Raynor_, that would only mean that the King is still a child._ "Are you ready Raynor?" Asked Van, already in his one-handed fighting position. "Sure! Ready as always!"

And with that Raynor charge at Van, he ran full speed at him, with Van merely standing there. Raynor swung his blade in an upwards-diagonal fashion, only to have Van deflect his attack with his sword hand and hit him right in his stomach with his free hand, sending all of the air in Raynor's lungs out of his body. Raynor coughed several times, and in between his attempts to try to regain his breath he said, "shit! No 'cough' no more!" Van helped Raynor up, and said "I guess I should take it easy?" Raynor stood there and barely whispered back, "no shit Van!" He stood up and shot a glare at Van, who seemed very confused at his attitude, _Raynor doesn't usually act like this when he loses. _Van was about to apologize when Raynor suddenly said with a smile, "jeez Your Majesty you have to get a better sense of humor!"

Merle had overseen the whole fight (not really a fight as Van barely made two moves) and was overjoyed to see Van win. _Lord Van always wins! I bet, without a doubt he is the strongest on Gaea!_ She started to run to Van, hearing all the cheers for him on her way over, and jumped on him hugging him tightly.

Whatever conversation Raynor was about to start with Van, was dropped and only said, "Well looks like you have company, besides I just came here to get supplies for the fort." He wavedand then went off in the direction of the armory.

In the Palace…

"So Lord Van how are you feeling?"

"Huh?" Van was still thinking about the camp that was destroyed awhile back, he still had some nightmares. "I'm alright. Why do you ask?" Merle kept hugging his arm as they were walking through the Palace. "Because I'm worried about your well-being Lord Van. And if you are Sad I want to be able to help you out anyway I can." Van put his hand on the top of her head, caressing her hair gently, "oh Merle, why do you care so much? You should be out having fun, not worrying over my problems." _Aha so he still feels bad about it! I knew he would slip up sooner or later. Well I don't like it when he stays sad about something, so here goes anything._

Merle decided to put her and Lilia's plan into motion.

Just as they were reaching his chambers, she took a step in front of him, and stepped within a breaths distance of him. _Gods he smells so great!_ "Are you sure there isn't anything I can do?" she said in her most seductive voice possible, all the while looking very innocent, a trick she picked up from Lilia's book. She pressed her body against him, and thought _well since it worked last time why not now?_ So she started to slowly and sensually move her hips, she was trying really hard not to get herself aroused, but failed when she noticed Van's own erection, _Thank the Gods I never wear anything under!_

Van felt Merle's lower regions start to warm up, but he still tried to control himself. _No I can't do this! I Love Hitomi!_ He noticed that he was getting an erection, _No! This is Merle! I can't do this!_ Van was fighting a War with himself, as he found out that trying to suppress Natural Urges is a very hard thing to do. She pressed up against him even more, her breasts touching his chest. Van looked slightly down and caught a glimpse of her cleavage. The Natural side of him suddenly won that War. He brought his head down closer to Merle's.

Gasp! _Is he going to kiss me? What do I do? Should I kiss him back? What about Hitomi? PFFTT! Who cares about Hitomi? She lost her chance! YES! I'm finally going to kiss Lord Van! Oh my Gods this is going to be great! _She brought her head up to his…

Despite how much they were discussing what to do in their heads, neither one of them was thinking. They both knew of the consequences, but still didn't think. They were about to have their First Kiss…

But it never came, for at that moment a bright light appeared outside the window.

They both separated immediately, the sexual daze wearing off.

They both looked out the window, and realized what it was.

Hitomi was coming back.

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ElVerdaderoOdio: I really had fun writing this chapter. 


	10. Chapter 9: Hitomi Returns

Chapter 9: Hitomi Returns

_Am I on Gaea? _

Hitomi looked around to her surroundings, she saw a huge bustling city bigger than any city that she had previously seen on Gaea. She would have examined it more, but she noticed that the section of the town was in shade, when it was clearly day and with not many clouds in the sky. _What's making this shade? I don't see any huge clouds in the sky. _She looked up and saw a floating _something_ up in the sky. It was connected or held down by various ropes, and even had stairs leading up at it. She wondered where the stairs where coming from, so she followed them with her eyes, and soon found her answer.

Hitomi's eye fell on an amazing sight. A huge white cathedral-like building, made out of a shining white material, decorated with huge banners, dominated her view. It was a very tall building, not as tall as a skyscraper, but tall for a building on Gaea. The cathedral-thing had various tall spires, catwalks that circled the outside walls of the building, even smaller buildings at its base. Hitomi noticed the perfect symmetry of the whole building, each side a mirror image of the other. She saw various red banners that contrasted with the white of the building, hanging from the outer walls. Even from afar Hitomi knew those banners would be soft. They looked like if made from a red silk, they hung down from the top of the wall they hung to nearly all the way to the ground. She could barely make out a symbol on the banners, squinting her eyes she asked, "Is that the Fanelian crest?" _I should take a closer look. _But before she could take another step several spears were pointed at her.

Van rushed down various hallways, making his way past various servants and Palace Guards, behind him he could hear Merle shout out in protest "Slow down Lord Van, I'm sure Hitomi will be there when we arrive!" Van mentally acknowledged that he was running fast, but he had waited for Hitomi to return all of these past 9 years, and if she were back he would waste no time in getting to her. As he reached the main doors for the Palace he saw a group of Palace Guards standing in defensive position, but what caught his eye was that someone was standing before them, decked out in a familiar looking school uniform.

Van waited for Merle to catch up to him. "Finally you stop running!" she said out of breath. "Mmh? What's going on over there?" "I think… I think that's Hitomi." Van said in a stupor. Merle suddenly had a burst of energy "well what are we standing here for? Lets go greet her before those guards think she is a witch or something and attack her!" No waiting any longer Merle ran over to the scene. One of the guards saw her coming and yelled out "No Lady Merle! She may be dangerous!" but she ignored him jumped past the guards and hugged Hitomi. "Hitomi I'm so glad your back! What's up with your hair how come it's still short? Did you bring me anything from the Mystic Moon? How have you been?" Hitomi didn't recognize this strange catgirl who was hugging her, but she didn't know many catgirls so she went out on a limb and guessed who it was "Merle! How have you been? I've missed you so much!" _Is this really Merle? She sure certainly has grown up a lot._ Merle suddenly asked with one eyebrow up "Really you did?" Hitomi was puzzled, by her remark, "well of course I missed you, didn't you miss me?" Merle was busy looking through Hitomi's purse, which had mysteriously vanished from under Hitomi's arm to Merle's hands, but had time to respond, "of course I didn't miss you! Why would I miss someone who just got us into trouble?" Hitomi stood there with her mouth wide open, "huh?" Merle let out a devilish grin, "Naw of course I missed you! But I know someone who missed you more!" _Same messed up humor, yes this is definitely Merle_. _Wait what she say? _"Who?" Merle looked at her with a blank expression, "by the gods you are dumb! Who do you think I'm talking about?"

"Hello Hitomi." As soon as that voice reached the group, the guards turned on their heels and stood at attention. Hitomi turned to look in the direction that the familiar voice came from. She saw a tall man standing there, well built with unruly hair. "What's the matter you don't recognize the King of Fanelia?" One of the guards spoke up "My Lord you know this woman?" Van turned to the guard and said in a relaxed voice, "you mean to tell me you don't recognize the Lady from the Mystic Moon?" The guards suddenly gasped, "This is the Lady from the Mystic Moon? We are deeply sorry, we did not know." They knelt down and started to pray forgiveness. Hitomi paid no attention to them, she could not help but to keep staring at Van. "Glad to have you back." He said, to which Hitomi responded "and I am glad to see you again." Van looked at her with a longing gaze, he had wanted to see her for the longest time. Hitomi knew Van still Loved her, his expression gave it away, but she didn't know how to tell him. To Hitomi this silence between them just made it awkward. They stared at each other for a long time, and then Merle coughed and said under her breath, "you guys are dumbasses."

As they walked through the Palace Halls, Hitomi just had to ask, "forgive me if this will sound stupid" before she could finish Merle thought in her head _It already sounds stupid. Still, it would sound dumb if she asked if we are in Fanelia. But she's not that stupid. _Hitomi went on, "but I was wondering, are we in Fanelia?" _Never mind I guess she is just that dumb. _Van could understand her answer and said, "Yes this is Fanelia, you are in the Rebuilt Palace." Hitomi marveled at how much Fanelia had changed, "but it looks so different now, it looks more Roman and Greek now than Japanese." Merle and Van just turned and looked at her with confused looks. "Must be some Mystic Moon thing." Merle added shrugging. "Van what was that floating thing I saw outside?" "Oh that's the Shrine of Escaflowne, it was built to house Escaflowne in peace time." Hitomi suddenly remembered the feeling she had that Van was in trouble. She immediately stopped and asked, "Van have you been in any fights recently?" Van shrugged "a while back a group of mercenaries attacked a small tribal camp near he border, I tried to stop them but when I arrived it was too late." Hitomi felt some of Van's sadness, being half psychic did that to people, and she could tell he blamed himself for the loss of the camp. Hitomi tried to comfort her friend, and went over to him and gave him a gentle squeeze, "It's ok Van, you did what you could." Van felt relief, besides Merle no one else had tried to tell him it was ok, no one tried to tell him 'you did your best' but it felt a lot better coming from Hitomi. He returned her hug and gave a kiss on the forehead, and said "I Love-" but before he could finish the Chief Advisor of Foreign Affairs came up to him and interrupted, "Lord Fanel, I need to speak with you immediately." Van sighed and withdrew from Hitomi, "ah the Lady from the Mystic Moon. It is a pleasure to see you again." Hitomi turned and said, "we've met before?" "Yes I was a shop owner in Old Fanelia, you purchased a strange disk from me." "Oh right the CD! Now I remember! Good to see you again." Van asked "Chief Advisor shall we go deal with the matter at hand?" "Oh yes of course fallow me." As they walked of Van turned to Merle and said, "oh Merle? Could you please take Hitomi to her room?" Merle suddenly smiled when Van talked to her, and said with a smile, "sure anything for you Lord Van." "Thank you Merle." And then he walked of with the Chief Advisor.

Merle and Hitomi were walking up one of the many stairs, that in Hitomi's opinion were endless, "I liked the Palace better when it had less stairs." She announced, as they went through some stairs that seemed to be going in a spiral. Merle stopped in front of a door and said in a sarcastic tone, "here you go your _Majesty _I hope our humble rooms will be enough for you." Hitomi didn't like the way she was being talked to, even if it was from a friend and asked, "And what do you mean by that?" "I'm just saying maybe you'll want more, as you always do." She was about to leave when Hitomi added in, "listen Merle I'm getting real tired real fast over your attitude now tell me what is this about!" Merle turned around and responded in a pissed-off tone, "well I don't know, lets see you get Van so involved with you that he falls in Love with you and then you mess around with Allen, then forget about Allen and go back to Van, only to screw around with some other guy on the Mystic Moon!" Hitomi suddenly felt very ashamed, she couldn't even look at Merle, so she adverted her gaze towards the ground, and quietly asked, "how did you find out?" Merle shook her head, "As a catgirl I am part of the Beast People, we can tell things like this. I smelled someone else's scent on you when I hugged you. Your whole body reeks of his scent." Hitomi felt like crying, she started to talk trying to hold back her shame, "it just happened, it was an accident it wa-" Merle cut her off, "are you involved with this man?" Hitomi answered, "yes I am." "How long?" "huh?" "How long!" Merle asked again in a more serious tone. "3 years." Merle couldn't believe what she was hearing, "3 years! Van has been so depressed without you and you go 3 years being with someone else, and never even tell him!" "I wanted to tell him! But I didn't know how to get here!" Merle was furious by now, "You know what Hitomi? You're here now! So unless you tell him, I will!" Merle stormed off, and Hitomi couldn't hold back the tears anymore, she ran into what she assumed was her room, and found the nearest bed, and she cried.

_I can't believe I did this to Van! How am I going to tell him? How? It'll break his heart, but I have to tell him! I can't give him a false hope about us!_ She cried until she fell asleep, 3 hours later.

Merle ran through the Palace, in no particular direction at all, when she ran into Van. "Merle what's wrong?" he asked when he saw tears down flowing from her eyes. She just hugged him and sobbed quietly. _Oh Lord Van I am so sorry this had to happen to you. I will still be here for you though, I don't know why this happened to you, but want to help you get through it. Lord Van I am so sorry._

Both Hitomi and Merle were crying over Van. Yet he was unaware of the heartache that would follow, that would devastate his heart. Poor soul.


	11. Chapter 10: I found Someone Else

Sorry I haven't written in a while, a lot of problems have been happening to me so I could only come up with this small chapter.

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Chapter 10: "I found someone else."

Van stood there, confused and without idea why the catgirl was crying her eyes out. So he did what he always did when she cried, he just hugged her and caressed her hair.

I wonder why she is crying? "Merle what's wrong? Are you upset about something?" Merle looked at Van and only though, _How could she do this to Him? _With that she ran off to her room, where she would cry the day away. _Well I'm sure she'll feel better in a while. _He went in the direction of Hitomi's room, he spent the last 9 years without her, and he was sure as hell not gonna let her pass by him this time.

Hitomi was in her chambers looking out at Fanelia. _Wow, a lot must have happened since I left._ She noticed how the city seemed to be the same, yet different. It still felt like Fanelia, but now there where various statues floating above buildings she did not see before, there were small carriages that seemed to have small levi stones attached to them. _Wow I can't believe Gaea developed flying cars before Earth._ Hitomi then thought where Gaea would go in the next few hundred years…

_Wait! NO! I didn't come here to sight see, I came her to tell Van to forget about me…I don't know how I'll do it but I have to._ Hitomi was suddenly startled by the sound of knocking on her chamber door. She walked over from her window over to the door, which to her seemed like walking from one side of her house to the other, _Goddam this room is huge!_

She opened the door and saw that it was her Old Love, Van. Well I guess now better than ever… She was about to tell him about Tien when he interrupted with the smallest and yet biggest words she's heard from him.

"I Love you."

It startled her and hell it even startled him. Van mentally kicked himself, _Damn_, he thought. _I should have saved that for later._ Van tried to find a way out of this, but being utterly lost in Love ( AN come on the guy did try to use Hitomi as a tool in that one episode!) just kept on blurting out words, "Ummm what I mean to say is that, well"

"Stop." Is all Hitomi said.

"Van the reason I came back here was to…" Hitomi just couldn't find the words, how could she? She knew however she tried to word it he would be hurt. _No, not even hurt, devastated. _"Well you see the thing is……" She looked at Van who was looking back at her, with that look in His eyes. That look only made it harder. _No I'd only be putting him through more pain if I don't tell him soon._

"Van, I found someone else."

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ElVerdaderoOdio: how will Van react? Tune in next time same place, same er whatever…. ( So sue me I got bored) 


	12. Chapter 11:

Chapter 11: …………

Merle was sitting in her room, well more like sulking in her room. She sat there on her queen-sized bed that she adored, not because it was huge and luxurious, but because it was her 18th birthday present, given to her by Van. She just sat there, motionless. She remembered how she and Van once fell asleep on this bed, and were found by the Palace servants. Everyone assumed they had slept together but Merle knew this was sadly not so.

_I can't believe Hitomi cheated on Lord Van like that. _As far as Merle was concerned "finding someone" else meant "finding someone better." And as far as she knew NO ONE was better than Lord Van. It had been two days since Hitomi had told Van about Tien. _It's been two days since Lord Van had his heart broken. Van sure has been acting depressed since then. He hasn't talked to anyone at all, well except for business of course. But afterwards. _Merle thought on how after all his meetings; Lord Van would lock himself in his chambers, or the training room. _He always wants to be alone when he's sad._

Merle's thoughts then wandered over to Hitomi.

_Stupid bitch._

Merle decided to see if Lord Van's mood had changed, though she doubted it would any time soon. Walking about the Palace she heard much chattering about. Rumors had started to spread of Van and Hitomi, and much to Merle's liking, most of the rumors where bad-mouthing Hitomi. She noted the disdain and loathing behind the name Hitomi, the Palace and all of Fanelia deeply cared about Lord Van. _And why wouldn't they?_ Quipped Merle, _he did bring back Fanelia from near Death! _Suddenly wondering how the rumors had started, Merle became confused. _Mmmmh, I know I didn't tell anyone, and I know that bitch didn't tell anyone; she's too much of a coward. And I know it wasn't Lord Van, he's to hurt to talk to anyone right now_. She reasoned to ignore however the rumors had started, instead opting to try to use them to cheer Lord Van up.

Emotional limbo. Those are the words. Those words described Van at this very moment. He didn't know if he felt. Sad. No. Betrayed. Yes. Angry. Nope. He just felt odd. Every part of his heart told him something else. One part told him that he should give up, because without Love there is no Life. Another part told him to be Angry, how dare she do that to me? After the Love I gave her? After I patiently waited for Her to return? One part of his Heart told him to try to win Her back. He didn't know what to think. He didn't have a clue.

But there was something that He found strange in all of this, out of all those voices from his Heart, there was one that Spoke louder than the others. This is that voice he did not comprehend in anyway at all.

When he thought of what he meant, he could find no answers.

The voice repeated the name of someone he Loves dearly even now.

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ElVerdaderoOdio: well wait until next chapter to find out! But if you don't know who it is by now you are either an idiot or a tomato, or both. 


	13. Chapter 12: Training Led to Sex

I haven't been updating regularly because of school, but now that I'm on vacation I'll start posting more frequently. OH yeah I keep forgetting. Thanks to Inda, Macky, and Metal Overlord and especially Merle for reviews. Thanks to everyone else for reading this and if I left you out in the review thing I'm sorry.

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Chapter 12: Training led to Sex

Van kept his breathing slow and deep. He tried to keep steady as he kept his posture, finishing the last of his attack movements. He had locked himself up in the training rooms, along with 5 golems. The golems were a recent addition to 'equipment' of the Palace. Van remembered when he first saw the golems, a merchant from a neighboring country was selling them, 'new technology, born from the spoils of Zaiboch' if Van remembered right. He couldn't remember the name of that country from which the merchant came from, for some odd reason. Either way, the golems made for extremely good practice, extremely strong and unpredictable too, sometimes even tiring out Van. He was ready to get his mind of Hitomi and her Tien. Right now he didn't even want to think of those two, and wanted only to get his mind of them. Training did that.

The golems circled Van and asked in that monotonous voice, "Combat Training. Specify which combat rules." That voice annoyed Van, he occasionally wondered if the golems were just machines or living beings, bored living beings. "Hand-to-hand combat. Only one attacker. Attacked when ordered." He commanded. The golems acknowledged his command, stood up straight and waited. Only one of them came forward.

Van took in deep breaths, got into his attack stance, "Attack on the count of 3." The golem dropped into its own stance.

"3…

2…"

Van took his last deep breath, and readied himself for a long day full of training and forgetting.

"1!"

Merle was walking happily across the Palace. Occasionally stopping and asking the guards and servants if they know on the whereabouts on _her_ Lord Van. She smiled to herself as she realized she had once again started to call him her Lord Van. Not Gaia's Lord Fanel, not any princesses' Lord Fanel, but _her_ Lord Van.

She realized she had started to call him by that name again, ever since the 'bitch' had hurt Van. Well Merle just saw it as an opportunity to have Van all to herself again, and idea that made her step more lighter and her tail happily sway from side to side. As she drew closer to the area where she knew Van would be, she heard the sounds she instinctively knew as Van in combat. As she tried to turn the knob on the door, she also knew it would be locked. And big surprise it was! So Merle went out to find the nearest window….

The golem took a step forward as he took a slashing left cross at Van's head, only to miss his mark by a few millimeters. Van deflected the golem's follow-up punch and spun inside its guard, ramming his elbow into what passes as its face. But the golem, moving with its piston-aided legs, sidestepped the blow, causing Van to go off balance.

Van ducked a swinging punch to his side temple, which he was glad he avoided, and leaped back to avoid a kick to his groin, which he was ESPECIALLY glad he avoided. Despite Van's quick reflexes he could not avoid a second kick to his shin, which caused him to stagger, nearly falling to the floor. The golem stopped for a second and all asked in their monotonous voice, "Would Lord Fanel wish to disengage training routines?" Van, rubbing his damaged shins, knew if he quit now he would think about _Her._ He also knew he wouldn't want to be beat by a golem. "No." he answered simply. As soon as he spoke those words the golem swung a terrible kick aimed right at his head, a kick of that force from the golems steel plated boots would kill anyone.

Merle, sitting on a windowsill, gasped amazed at how fast Van reacted, dodging the steel boot, turning on his feet to grab the golems leg, fully flipping the golem off its feet and slamming it into the ground. She was amazed at Van strength, even more so when she saw him twist the golems leg, twisting metals and watched in some awe-like terror as oils sprayed out of the twisted leg, strangely resembling blood. Van stood looking at the crawling golem, watching as it sprayed its blood-like oil on the floor.

"I knew you would win Lord Van!" squealed Merle as she leapt into to the room from the windowsill where she had been watching. She ran over to Van ready to give him a well-deserved hug.

But she didn't expect the golem to attack her. Van didn't expect it.

Hell even the golem didn't expect it.

The golem sent a fist straight into Merle's direction, but fell short a few miraculous millimeters of her. Merle expected to be in a lot of pain right now, but when she opened her eyes again, she could see the golem lying immobile on the floor, Van's sword pinning it to the ground, skewering some of its internal engines and gears. "Merle get away from it!" ordered Van, not wanting to see someone he cares for hurt. Not wanting to take any chances either. Merle did as she was told, scurrying away on all fours away from the thing, and closer to some cover. Van expected the golem to be dead, if such a thing could die, but it started to move again, clawing in the direction of Merle.

The machine was desperately trying to reach Merle, and even as Van sunk his blade deeper into its body, moving his blade from side to side, it kept moving. It even seemed to move with more desperation or determination. Seeing as the sword was not doing anything, Van took a harder line of action. He put his fist through its head.

It really was a beautiful explosion. Well it would have been to a soldier or a warrior. But under these circumstances it was, well gruesome. Van's fist hit the back of the golems head with such intensity that the casing helmet on its head shattered inwards. Pieces of its helmet followed Van's fist as it went deeper into its head, squishing the soft artificial brain inside. Even if Van did not cause enough damage to it, the metal that caved into its head and brain did. Bluish sparks of energy and binding magic flew out in all directions, relinquishing a terrible noise and releasing the golem's consciousness.

Van slowly pulled his hand out of the shattered ruin that once was a head. He was careful not to move it too much, for he knew some of his bones had broken. Sure enough deep cuts and shards of metal were firmly lodged into the flesh of his hand. Blood ran down his hand like little rivers culminating in red waterfalls as the blood dripped from his hand down to the floor.

After the initial shock Merle snapped out of her trance. She quickly ran over to Van, who was making a fist with his bleeding hand, attempting to fight back the pain. "Lord Van." She finally said, tears running down her cheek, "you… you s-s-s" she started crying. REALLY crying. As in lots of tears. She came in close to Van, hugging him as she cried.

Van tried to comfort her, "its alright Merle. As long as your OK its alright." Merle would hear nothing of it. She gently grabbed Van's hand, and started to lick the blood and cut wounds. Van was about to tell her that the wound would heal up but, didn't. He instead started to enjoy the strange sensation of her tongue darting around his fingers. He look at her, just as she raised her head to look at him. They caught each others gaze and looked into each others eyes for what felt like an eternity. Suddenly everything became clear to them.

Next thing they knew, they were in Van's bedroom. Kissing and Disrobing.

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ElVerdaderoOdio: finally I get to write something fun LEMONS! (Metal Overlords' dream come true.) Hahaha yeah well I'll try to post it as soon as possible. 


	14. Chapter 13: Romance

LEMONS AHEAD (I have never written this soooo go easy on criticisms)

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Chapter 13: Romance

They had just ran here, well technically Van had just ran here, carrying Merle in his arms like a newly wed couple. Van placed her on his bed, which to Merle, never having been on, felt like a warm cloud. _Or is that just because of Lord Van?_ She thought. She was so thrilled and excited, but suddenly doubt crossed her mind, "Lord Van, are you… sure about this?" she asked, scared that a respond might be No. Van however just looked at her and kissed her again. _Well good enough for me_ she thought.

Van kissed her once on the lips before going on to kissing her neck. Merle wrapped her arms around Van neck, bringing him closer, tasting his tongue as it explored her mouth. He placed his hand on her hip, slowly moving down her leg. He then brought his hand closer to the waist again, lifting up her dress and finally taking it off her. Merle felt weird at first;_ oh I can't believe this is happening! Oh MAH GODS!_ She gave out a gasp as she saw Van take of his shirt.

Van saw Merle's body and became amazed by her beauty. She had nice perky breasts, and he noticed her nipples were erect pointing directly at him; she had a slim waist leading to her beautifully curved hips. Her hair fell onto her shoulders; she was looking at him with longing eyes. Her curves, her hair, her tanned body, her eyes… As he saw her without the limitations of clothing he realized that to him she is the perfect Image of beauty.

Merle looked at Van's body, and noticed that his body had changed, though she often saw him without a shirt she had noticed how his body was changing. He now had a developed muscle tone; she could see some of his scars from trainings and other battles. Yes she had seen him without a shirt, but not like this, not in this condition.

She started to kiss him again, and moved her hand to his erection. _Oh my gods_ was all she could think, _how is that going to fit?_ Well she didn't really have time to think of a solution for this big problem, because at that moment, Van decided to begin.

She let out a small gasp, a gasp of both surprise and pleasure. Van, now deep inside of her, started to rhythmically thrust his erection in and out of her body. Merle didn't know what to do, in all honesty all of her adult dreams didn't really show anything in her mind, just that they started and then…. She would wake up. But now, she was experiencing it, she was feeling him inside her, growing bigger and going harder with passion.

And Merle hoped with Love.

She looked up at Van and was startled to see him looking back, they kissed again, Van running his fingers through her hair, Merle wrapping her legs around his waist and her arms around his neck. She whispered into his ear, "Please Lord Van, take me all night long."

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El Verdadero Odio: plz send me ideas to write better Lemon scenes. I have never written about this sooo I don't know how to write it. 


	15. Chapter 15: The Next Day

Chapter 15: The Next Day….

The next day Merle awoke a new woman. Gods she felt great. She turned over in the bed to face Van. She just lay there sleeping, and Merle was content just watching him. She had dreamed of being with Van all of her life and now it was happening, finally happening! "Lord Van.. I love you." She then gave him a little lick on the cheek.

_Hahaha take that bitch! _She thought suddenly thinking of Hitomi.

Suddenly someone started knocking on Van's door. Merle's fur (fur or hair?) stood on end. _Oh no! what if they find out about us!_ She started to panic, looking anywhere for a safe way out, but when Van suddenly said "Come in." she just jumped under the covers. The door opened and in came the Chief Advisor of Defense. "Lord Fanel we…" _Damn she noticed me! _"… Lord Fanel is that Lady Me-" "So what if it is?" Van answered before she could finish. Jasmine decided to leave it at that "well…" she continued "we have some information on the attack, we need you to come to the Council Room." And with that she left.

Van kissed Merle one last time before getting dressed and then leaving the room. But just before he passed through the doorway he heard Merle say something. SOMETHING BIG.

"Lord Van…. I, I Love You." Merle finally said it, and why not she thought, it's the best time to say it. It was the best time to say it, Merle always pictured it like this, then Her Lord Van would turn and say I Love You and then cut to a big wedding scene. All that's left she thought if for Van to say it.

But he didn't say it. He just walked out the door.

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ElVerdaderoOdio: dun dun DUNNN! Why didn't Van say he loves her!? Does anyone really read these messages at the bottom?

Thanks to everyone for reading and reviewing.


	16. Chapter 16: Trouble

Chapter 16: Trouble

Van was upset for the rest of the day.

"I Love You."

Those words where haunting him, down to his very soul. The simple sentence, it suddenly dawned on him, contained both the power to stop a man in his tracks or move him forward with the power of an army. He completely missed the first half hour of his meeting with the Chief Advisor of the Homeland. He dismissed her with a wave of his hand, and she left without objection. The whole Palace was stirred with rumors about Lady Merle and Lord Fanel. And why wouldn't it? Practically everyone knew that Merle and Van had some kind of connection, so it was obvious to assume if the Lady is upset it must have something to do with the King. That and well, some servants heard them while they…

"Well… at least I know things aren't the same, or at least they can never be the same anymore." Van was walking around his Palace, saying Hi or Hello to those who passed by, getting into conversations or filling forms with people, but he wasn't really there. He was mainly just wondering what had happened last night. It had seemed so right yesterday in the moment, but now he just didn't understand why they had done it.

He was thinking that maybe he should just tell her that he wasn't in his right mind when they… but right at that moment a messenger broke his thought. "Lord Fanel," he said before kneeling in front of him. _I really have to change that custom, _Van thought, "You may rise." "Lord Fanel, the King of Fanelia, the King of Doxu whishes an audience with you." "The King of Doxu?" Van vaguely remember that country, he once stayed there, during the smaller conflicts that followed the Gaian-Zaiboch War he was there on a request for assistance clearing the area of Zaiboch stragglers. The King wasn't so great a person, but in he spent some time with his family and they were nice people. Still Van didn't know what business the King could have here, in Fanelia some 8 years later. _But_, he thought, _I guess I'll find out._

He almost wished he hadn't.

He wanted to extend his diplomatic power into the world. Which meant he wanted his daughter to marry.

To Van.

_No way in Hell! _Well at least that's what Van wanted to say but, being a King of a country, he couldn't just say whatever popped into his mind, even if he REALLY wanted to say it. "Lord Fanel" Doxun's King went on, "I think it would really do wonders both economically and politically for our two countries to extend our relationship beyond just friendship and into a family. And so I present to you my daughter, Sophia."

She walked into the chamber, her long pink dress flowing behind her. She curtsied, and looked up at Van, with her big blue sparkling eyes. Van wasn't buying it.

Merle was walking happily around the Palace Gardens, humming an old Fanelian tune, picking flowers and smelling their fragrance, occasionally putting some in her hair or a little basket she had. With a start she suddenly realized, _What the Hell! Something bad is going on! _She could tell something was going on, she could tell that nearby somewhere, something bad was about to happen.

Van walked up to the curtsying princess and kissed her on the hand (as tradition dictates, Van wasn't loving this tradition at the moment.) The princess giggled flirtingly.

Merles hair stood on end.

Two nearby guards whispered to each other, "Troubles a' brewing."

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ElVerdaderoOdio: um sorry it took so long for a lackluster chapter, school has started. Next update soon. 


	17. Chapter 17: Pleasantries

ElVerdaderoOdio: um sorry it took so long for a lackluster chapter, school has started. Next update soon."Holy shit, was I way off. Anyways, sorry about this epic delay.

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Chapter 17: Pleasantries… 

Most of the day was spent welcoming the new arrivals. King of Doxun and his fair daughter, Sophia.

King Doxun, while not a great person, was still a good guy. He talked openly with Van, cracked a few jokes and was, well, a nice guy. His daughter too, she was polite, courteous and said thank you to everyone. For a few moments, Van forgot that they were here to arrange a marriage with him, a marriage he didn't want, and, had they been here under different circumstances, he might have felt a bit more at ease around them.

Of course Merle was furious.

_If this girl tries anything, I swear by the Gods, right in the face!_

Merle grinned deviously as she played with the idea of "accidentally" spilling drink all over the princess's dress come dinnertime. _That would be sweet._

She had been secretly shadowing Van, the Doxun King and Sophia for the past hour, watching as Van showed them around the Palace, giving them a tour of most of it, leading them out the Gardens and back into the throne room as he ordered two rooms to be prepared for them.

Healthy green fruits, delicious red berries, succulent roast pig, various sweet breads, the Fanelian cooks really did enjoy cooking.

Everyone was invited, the Chief Advisors, eager to hear about the world at large, some of the top Guard Officers, all seated at a large marble dining table. Lord Fanel sitting at the end of the table, his esteemed guests at the other. Merle sat next to near the middle, after all the Chief Advisors and Guard Officers, and other Royal servants. She would occasionally snap looks at Sophia, whom she caught giving flirty looks at Van.

Many talked amongst themselves, asking the guests about their homeland, cracking jokes, staring at the princess that was seated amongst them, but mainly everybody ate.

At one point, Princess Sophia looked at Merle and said

"Servant girl, may I have another drink?"

Everything stopped. "Oh shit!" someone muttered.

All Van could do was look on, hoping that, Merle had matured enough to be able to hold back. He remember the last time a foreigner took her for a servant, and remembered the mass amounts of bandages that were required to plug up the wounds.

Then he saw Merle let out a devilish grin.

"Ah shit" he muttered.

Leading the King and Princess to their rooms, Van apologized once again on Merle's behalf, promising he would personally oversee the dress be retailored, the wine stains washed out, all the cuts patched up, the blood cleaned out, in the end, it was simply agreed that a new dress would be less costly.

"Really Lord Fanel," Sophia said, not really upset by the situation, "It was a simple misunderstanding, I would have done the same."

Van looked at her, "Really? You would have done exactly the same?"

"Well, maybe not _exactly_ the same!"

Van, Sophia and the King broke out laughing.

Sophia wished them a goodnight and retreated to her quarters. Van and the King, were left alone in the hallway now. It was a few seconds before the King spoke up.

"Lord Fanel," he said, voice low, "May I have a word with you?

"Most impressive Lord Fanel!" gasped the Doxun King as he stood near the edge on one of the terraces of the Palace, overlooking Fanelia. "Impressive indeed… that Fanelia grew so much in so little time."

Van agreed, and looked at his city, his home, with joy and pride.

"This is why I need this marriage Lord Van," the man's tone different now, "Gaia is growing and changing, and some of the smaller kingdoms are having trouble adapting. By the Gods, the fall of Zaiboch had a profound effect on the world, as did your actions." The Doxun King went on, "Many of the smaller kingdoms are being stamped out, the larger ones expanding too fast and too quickly, in an effort to regain stability, and get a footing in the world again."

As if to accent this point a carriage flew by, maintained in the air by levi stones, steam chugging out of the carriage's steam engine.

"A marriage, between my daughter and you, will not only ensure that my kingdom, and my people will not be one of those trampled underfoot by progress, but will also ensure that you, Lord Fanel, will have a lifelong ally. Though you have many already, many of them are far away, whereas my kingdom, though small, is closer, and trade routes can easily be established between us. Not only that, but it would also place you in higher esteem if the world saw that you still cared about the little guys."

Van listened to the words, knowing full well that they were true. Even still, past all the reason the King spoke, Van didn't want it. At the moment he wasn't very keen on being a leader.

Sensing that this was not a good time to press the issue, the King of Doxun instead decided to look out onto the city.

The King let out another whistle, "Still, that friend of yours sure is something, it took 3 handmaidens to restrain her!"

Van let out a small chuckle, "Haha, yeah, that's Merle for you."


	18. Chapter 18: Dead of Night

Chapter 18: Dead of Night

Van walked through the Palace halls by himself.

He quickly discovered that he could not sleep, and was not even in a state of mind for sleep.

The King of Asturia assassinated? How could this be, and how hadn't he heard about it? He was sure Allen or Millerna would have dropped him a message. Though, on further reflection, an assassination on the King may have caused the recent lack of communication and trade between Fanelia and Asturia.

The attack on the small village recently also troubled his mind. _What is going on in Asturia?_ _If they needed help, they could have asked me, they know I would have lent a hand._

He walked down a winding staircase, moonlight seeping into the castle through the windows, illuminating his way. For a brief moment, he very much appreciated the white material that had been used in building most of Fanelia again; it reflected moonlight very well, so that even during nighttime some visibility remained.

Walking past a few doors, he stopped, looking down a hallway, he knew this particular hallway led to Merle's room.

Van wondered if she was awake, he could use a friend right now… _No, she might be asleep, and it would be rude to wake her._

Unfortunately, he found himself already at her door, and already knocking. She didn't answer. _She must be asleep._ A smile appeared on his face, "Goodnight Merle."

Inside here room, Merle was fast asleep, as she would always do after getting into a fight. She was dreaming, also as always, of Van. She was curled up in her king sized bed, her chest slowly rising and falling as she breathed, and her tail unconsciously swaying side to side.

Her dreams were filled with scratching out Sophia's eyes. _HAHAHAHA touch MY __Lord __Van will you! Take some of that! And __that__ and that!_

She then had a smile of scratching out Hitomi's eyes. _Hurt Lord Van will you! Take some of this, and some of this!_

A small smile formed on her lips as she slept.

"Goodnight Mere."

_What was that?_

Merle had heard someone whisper something outside her door. Normally, she would be a pretty heavy sleeper, but the recent attempts on Van's life had changed that.

_Doesn't sound like anyone is in trouble. Wait, was that Van?_

She suddenly woke up, with no trouble at all, almost as if she hadn't spent the last few hours asleep and tired. She wondered if it was Van. Her tail began to sway happily from side to side, and her smile had grown larger. She leapt out of her bed, and scrambled to her door. She reached the door and-

"VA—huh?"

Nothing.

_I'm sure that was Lord Van's voice. But, I don't see him. Maybe he thought I was asleep. He did say goodnight._ A warm fuzzy feeling rose up in Merle. _Aww, he came and said goodnight to me._

The last time that he had said that to Merle was on…

…_that night._

Her memories of that magical night when she and Van had slept together were still warm in her mind, heart and…

_… __Other__ places._

Merle felt the same way she felt last night. Part of her body began to feel… funny. Good. She started to blush, and welcomed certain thoughts as they came into her mind. She suddenly felt that she needed to see Van, if only just to talk.

They had much to talk about.

Hitomi had spent the last few days in her room. It's not that she didn't want to talk to Van, to see if he was ok, but, well, she just couldn't. She had turned down his offers to be at the dinner, partly because she didn't want to look at him right now, guilt still plagued her heart. Her thoughts moved over to the man that she had had an amazing adventure with. He was nice, caring, _not to mention handsome._ She had noticed how much she had changed. His hair, his body, everything. She had noticed his hard work, Fanelia was strong and prosperous again, and if she had read the books in her room correctly, it was the world superpower now. All of Gaia had come so far now. _It would be a lie_ she thought, sitting near a window, overlooking Fanelia, _if I said I don't love him anymore.__ I still have… I still feel something for him. But, different now. I love Tien now._

She wondered what her new boyfriend was doing now.

_I hope he is Ok. I wonder if he has called the police now, or filed a missing person report. Sounds like something he would do._ She rested her hands and head on the windowsill, moonlight hitting her face. _Sounds like something Merle would do… if such a thing existed here._

Merle.

She was the other reason she didn't want to be outside right now. She had known for some time now that she had feelings for Van, that much was obvious from the moment she had first met her, when she greeted Van at Fanelia's gates and gave him a few affectionate licks. She also knew how mad Merle was at her right now, after she had found out about Tien. She was pretty scared of what Merle would do to her if she bumped into her right now.

_She'd probably scratch my eyes out. I heard what she did to that girl who came to visit us._

Another reason she didn't want to be outside. Yeah, she had basically dumped Van, and cheated on him. It still felt bad to admit that, but what bothered her a bit more was the fact that there was a girl in the palace that was coming to marry him. Well, that's what she heard anyway. It made sense, Kings and Princes married Queens and Princesses.

Still, she couldn't help but feel a small sense of Jealousy.

She sat in silence for a long time.

The wind blew in her face, and she could see people in Fanelia were still awake. Lights shining in the city, and a few of those levi-carriages traveling in the sky.

More time passed.

She decided she would talk to Van.

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El Verdadero Odio: Goddamn, I have been gone a long time. Man, I have really been slacking off, forgive me!

I just realized that there is no ch. 14 in this fic.


	19. Chapter 19: Van's Nighttime Visit

Chapter 19: Van's Nighttime Visit

Van looked out, standing up against a wall, up on a balcony; he could see his city, and his people.

He sighed. There was a lot on his mind right now, he was used to it. Being the King of a country that had basically been rebuilt out of ashes, struggling with his people as they rebuilt their home and more, he always had a bit more on his mind.

He was finding it harder and harder to just relax, it was taxing.

_Speaking of taxes…_

His mind wandered all over the place. He had meet with the Chief Advisor of Treasury, and were discussing the recent developments with Austuria, and how it would affect trade and taxes. More thoughts buzzed in his mind, taxes, city planning, military build-up, assassination attempts, and ceremonies to make, laws to pass…

… and women.

This was something Van didn't really think about. The only women he had ever talked about really, in any affectionate way were his mother, and that really didn't count, Merle and Hitomi.

_Hitomi…_

His mind wandered to her, his first love, the woman he wanted to spend his life with. And the woman who had torn his heart into hundreds of little pieces. He still felt something for her, that much was sure, but it was different now. He still cared for her, just; he knew deep down that any sort of romantic relationship was way out of the question now. He wasn't sure how to act around her anymore, and thankfully she had been in her room for the past few days.

_That's pretty rude of me,_ Van thought guiltily, _she __may not__… Love me anymore but, she is still my f-friend. _Van let out a deep sigh, wondering if he meant what he said. _No, she is my __friend;__ she is still close to me. I haven't seen here in a long time, __and I__ should talk to her again, see how she has been doing._

_Or who she has been doing._

_No!_

_I will not think like that._ Van pushed those odd thoughts from his mind, and he tried to think about something else.

Another unpleasant thought came into his head. Sophia and the King of Doxun. They were nice people; they were good, maybe a bit odd, but good people. He had heard that the King had actually opened his borders to any people seeking refuge after the War. And his daughter was a nurse. But he was supposed to marry her?

_I don't__ even know her. She is nice looking though, I can't lie about that._

Van didn't feel comfortable anymore, and he stood up and stretched a bit. All of this felt…

… odd. He knew he was supposed to be heartbroken over Hitomi. He knew he should be entertaining the idea of marriage, all Kings had to do it but, it just seemed so wrong.

_What would Merle say?_

_Damn, I knew I would think about her sooner or later._

Things had been, odd to say the least. Ever since that night when he had slept with Merle. No, not slept. That sounded way too cheap. He knew there was something else; it was NOT just a wild fling, not just a onetime thing.

_Its time I face facts, I am in L—_

Van turned on his heel, he knew someone was around. He instinctively dropped into his combat position, and scanned the area around him.

He wondered if it was another assassin.

_This is just the shit I need!_

He had way too much on his mind, and he really didn't want to deal with someone trying to kill him.

"SHOW YOURSELF!" he screamed.

_Dammit! He found me! Oh well, the jig is up…_

Slowly but surely, Merle came out of the shadows.

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El Verdadero Odio: Oh shit cliffhanger! What will happen? I'm pretty sure you all know what will happen.

I think this is one of the shorter chapters that I have written, but, at least I updated faster than I usually do…


	20. Chapter 20: What Seems Natural

WTF chapter 20?! Sorry, not a very long chapter, I have been sick. Damn illnesses. BTW, review this stuff people! What do you like what dont you like etc etc?

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Chapter 20: What Seems Natural 

Merle came out of the shadows, a guilty look on her face.

"Merle? What are you doing here?"

Van put away his sword, and relaxed. He watched as Merle slowly made her way over to him, which surprised him. He had grown used to Merle's running jumping hugs, and several licks to the face by now.

"Merle, is something on your mind?" Van just couldn't shake the feeling that something was up. Merle just looked at him.

"No, nothing is wrong" she said, shaking her head from side to side for effect, "I just wanted to come out here and talk to you."

"Oh?"

Merle started to blush slightly, "I, well I wanted to talk about, you know…"

Van knew what she was talking about.

She walked up to Van and wrapped both arms around him, hugging him tightly. "It, really meant a lot to me, and I was just wondering, if… it meant the same… to you?"

Much to Merle's surprise, Van wrapped his arms around her too, holding her by the waist.

"Merle, it meant a lot to me too. And… I also wanted to tell you that..."

_Do I? _Van mentally thought to himself. _Do I really love her? _He looked at her, and for a split second, he noticed everything about her, things he had always known and yet never noticed. Her eyes were really beautiful. She smelled really nice, her cute nose and her cute ears, her ran his fingers through her hair, and enjoyed its soft feel against his calloused hands.

She looked up at him and smiled, her smile caught his eye, and made him feel incredibly relaxed and happy.

"Merle."

"Huh?"

She looked directly at Van. She looked beautiful in the moonlight.

_She looks beautiful anywhere._

"I love you."

She looked at him for such a long time, Van was slightly afraid that he had lost his chance. He was afraid that, perhaps after yesterday, after he had avoided telling her how he felt, she would reject him.

All that she did, however, was just hug Van, pulling him into a tighter embrace.

Suddenly, Merle silent spell wore off, and the joy inside her got the best of her, still hugging Van, she jumped up into his arms, forcing him to carry her lest she hit the hard floor beneath them.

"Oh-my-god-Lord-Van-I-love-you-so-much-you-don't-know-how-much-this-means-to-me-you-don't-know-how-long-I-have-waited-for-you-to-say-this-to-me-I-thougth-the-day-would-never-come-especially-after-Hitomi-showed-up-I-thought-she-had-taken-you-away-from-me-and-we-would-never-be-together-again-and-I-would-be-so-alone-and-I-would-get-old-and-I-would-never-see-you-again-and-I-would-never-ever-ever-be-happy-again!-but-oh-my-god-I-love-you-so-much-so-much-so-much!" She began to smother him in kisses, "you-mean-the-world-to-me-you-know-that-I-feel-so-safe-in-your-arms…"

Merle wanted to stop. She had always planned this, since her childhood. Van would be out on night, under a beautiful moon,and she would come in, and finally confess her feelings for Lord Van, and then they would say "I Love You" to each other, and then look into each other's eyes. Both of them would then slowly start to move their heads closer together, closing their eyes as their lips finally met for the first time. She had gotten the first parts right, but after Van had told her that He Loves Her, well, all her plans were just flushed out by the immense feeling of-

-joy is too small a word. Happiness doesn't cut it either. What Merle was feeling right now was far beyond any word she had ever heard before, far beyond words that living creatures had made.

And so, she couldn't help herself. Holding in her feelings for almost the whole of her life had done this to her. And now, as she clutched on to Lord Van, her arms around his neck and his arms carrying her, kissing him and just pouring out her little heart to him, she just could not stop.

And she didn't want to.

Looking at Merle, Van could barely comprehend what she was saying. But he didn't need to. As he looked at her saying, something, Van began to notice much more about here. The way here eyes sparkled, the funny thing her ears would do when she was happy, he could slightly see her tail waving happily side to side, and the way she kissed him.

That had taken him by surprise, of all the things today and recently, her kisses. The last time they had been intimate, he had kissed her. Of course he had kissed her, he had looked at her beautiful body as they made love. But now, now something was different, as if something had been added that had completed the experience.

He did what only seemed natural to him.

He leaned in and gave her a long passionate kiss.

At first Merle was slightly caught off guard, but then, she got into it. She returned his kiss, and melted in his arms.

She pulled away from him, a thought crossing her mind.

"Lord Van" she said, "what about that princess, what about Hitomi?"

Van looked directly at her.

"It's just us tonight."


	21. Chapter 21: Early Morning

I decided to ger rid of the other chapter, the one with the slave girl, since I thought it ruined the flow of the story and wanted this to focuse more on Merle and Van's relationship. All the other stuff will come later, not know.

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Chapter 21: Early Morning

Van woke up later than usual, but then again, what he did last night with a certain catgirl wasn't something he usually did. As the sun crept up over Fanelia, its light seeping in through the windows and washing over everyone, its light also fell atop the certain catgirl that still slept in Van's bed.

One of her arms still thrown across Van's body, her head resting peacefully on Van's shoulder, her whole posture seemed to shout "He's mine!" even in sleep. Van ran his fingers through her soft pink hair, careful not to wake her up. 

He still couldn't believe it. Her she was, his childhood friend, the girl he had almost literally spent all of his life with, grown up next to (puberty was such an awkward phase) but he certainly never thought of her something more. He knew of course that she made him happy, and that he could talk to her whenever he wanted. Of course he noticed what an attractive young woman she had grown into, and was sometimes quite jealous when other men would look at her with leery eyes. He inwardly laughed when he remembered the time when he thought she had a boyfriend, and how jealous he used to get whenever he saw the guy. (It turned out of course, to be just some random stalker who was following around.) He assumed that he felt that way because he didn't want his friend taken away from him but…

… Now he knew better. Know he knew better, he knew quite how much her loves her, and how much (he hopes) she loves him.

The catgirl that had kept him up late last night woke up. As she opened her eyes and before Van could say "Good morning." the very first thing she did is pull Van into a long kiss. "Good morning Lord Van." She said, looking up at him. "Good morning Merle. Did you sleep well?"

Merle smiled, "I don't know, we didn't do much sleeping last night did we?"

Van laughed, "I guess we didn't did we. Your hair will attest to that." 

Merle immediately placed a hand over her hair, which was more messy and ruffled than usual, "Hey! Well, your hair isn't so great either Lord Van!"

"Hahaha, my hair is never combed in the first place!"

Merle reached out and messed up Van's hair even more. "I know, it's just that you look sexy with sex hair."

Van raised an eyebrow, "Sexy? Where did you hear a word like that?"

Merle simply brushed off the question, "In some book, so Lord Van, what were you thinking off? What are you going to do today?"

Van looked at her, then out the window. He frowned, he wasn't sure what to do today. Certainly, things with Merle made things a bit more… complicated? Was that the right word? He looked back at Merle, who was still waiting for his answer. No. Things with Merle made everything a lot simpler.

"Well, the first thing I am going to do, is talk to Sophia a-"

"Umph!" Merle turned around in bed, her back to Van, still atop him.

"And her father" Van continued, putting his arms around Merle, he leaned in closer making sure she would hear the next part "to tell them that I won't be marrying Sophia. I already have someone I love."

Merle quickly turned around, her face beaming, she then smothered Van in more kisses.


	22. Chapter 22: Still in the Bedroom

Chapter 22: Still in the Bedroom

After Merle finished smothering Van with kisses and tightly hugging him, she finally rested besides Van, her head on his shoulders. They laid there like that for a few peaceful moments, before Merle spoke up again, "Lord Van, what are you going to do about Hitomi?" She could tell he tensed up. She playfully stroked his chest with her finger, trying to get him to ease up. "You know, I think she really is sorry about what she… well you can't ignore her forever can you? I know you still care about her."

"What? No Merle I-"

Merle looked up at Van, smiling "No, I know you care about her. I know you don't _love_ her anymore, but you still care. And Lord Van, she is our friend, we can't just ignore her. Besides, she gets us into so much trouble all the time, life would be pretty boring without her."

Van sighed, he knew he would have to talk to Hitomi, and mentally kicked himself for ignoring her for so long. He would have made time for Hitomi, had things been different, and now he was ignoring her? It wasn't right. He hugged Merle tightly, "I will go and speak with her today. I'll do it right after I talk to Sophia and her father."

"Good, we are all friends Lord Van and I want us to stay that way." Merle hugged Van and gave him one final kiss before standing up and stretching her body. Her eyes beamed as she looked outside, the Fanelian nation basking in the early glow of morning. The entire city was glowing, the yellow light of the sun reflecting off of the white buildings of Fanelia. Anywhere else, and it would have been blinding, but here in Fanelia, it was beautiful. Merle could see the people walking along the streets and the shop keepers in the market square setting up their shops. Out in the fields she could see the farmers plowing their lands, and past the port she could see the first carriages lift off and fly towards their intended destinations, trading with the rest of Gaea.

She felt the gentle breeze on her face, and on her neck and on her….

_Am I wearing clothes?_

Merle reluctantly looked down to see that she was in fact not wearing clothes, and was standing on the balcony in the nude. She immediately moved her hands to cover herself and turned back, looking for her clothing. All she saw as a grinning Van Fanel, "Why didn't you tell me I didn't have clothes on!" she shrieked.

"I was too busy admiring the view!"


End file.
